What the Tech? Amazon Prime Day competition

(ABC 6 News) – Amazon Prime Day is less than a week away and the company’s biggest summer sales event has competition this year.

Last year, Amazon shoppers purchased approximately $12 billion worth of items during Prime Days. Naturally, Target, Best Buy, Walmart, and other retailers want to get a slice by holding their own summer sales holiday.

Walmart announced its Prime Day competition called Walmart+ Week on Instagram. It runs July 6th through the 13th. Walmart+ members get early access to the sale starting on the 6th and then sales prices will be available to everyone beginning July 11th. Walmart+ memberships cost $13 a month or $98 a year.

Target is competing with “Circle Week” which runs from July 9th-15th. Customers must sign up as Circle members for discounts on grocery items, clothing, and some electronics. Unlike Walmart and Amazon’s membership programs, it doesn’t cost anything to join Target Circle.

Best Buy is rolling out big discounts on electronics but doesn’t appear to have given its summer sales event a name.

Do any of the retailers match Amazon’s Prime Day prices?

I looked at all of the price-match policies and found Walmart does not match any of its competitor’s prices either online or in stores anytime during the year.

Target’s policy states it will match Amazon’s price with a few stipulations. The item must be exactly the same, even the color, and cannot be from a third-party seller. It also can not be part of a lightning sale. You’ll need to present the Amazon listing in a Target store or chat online with customer service where they can look up the item online. Even then, a Target sales representative or manager makes the final decision on whether they’ll match the price.

Best Buy’s “Best Price” policy states it doesn’t match prices available only to customers who pay another retailer for special membership pricing such as Prime Days.

Of course, to take advantage of Prime Day, you must be an Amazon Prime member at a cost of $139 a year. If you’re not a Prime member you’ll likely find better prices on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.