• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, October 18, 2023

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.  We are quickly approaching Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas + Hannukah, but we just passed by the single greatest holiday of the year.  I am, of course, speaking of Prime Big Deals Days!

Prime Big Deals Days is the time when each member of the family gazes longingly into their crystal ball -- or, as we refer to it, “The Amazon app” -- and wishes for things they can buy to fill space in the house, enable better gaming, or fulfill other semi-necessary needs.  Then, when you wake up the next morning, you rush to the front door to see if Santazon has delivered your packages overnight!

What’s even more exciting is that Santazon seemingly sends his Amazonian elves to your house every hour on the hour, delivering a continual stream of goodies to be enjoyed by everyone (except for those of us who have to assemble these items).  It's the gift parade that keeps on giving!

It's amazing to see how quickly Amazon has changed our behaviors.  I found myself doing some late-night searches for early holiday gifts far in advance this year.  This behavior changed because almost every single news outlet covers Prime Big Deals Days as news, reminding shoppers that this is the time when they can go and buy more stuff.

How did Amazon get NBC, CBS and ABC as well as Fox and CNN, to cover its handcrafted holiday as a newsworthy event?  Costco and Home Depot have been pushing the holiday decorations even earlier, showing me trees and reindeer back in the first week of September, but none of those end caps and aisles of happiness have gotten me so ready as Prime Big Deals Days.

As much as we may proclaim that we don't want more stuff, we find ways to convince ourselves this is stuff we need, not just want.  Amazon is the ultimate purveyor of said stuff, and it spent millions of dollars last week to get us thinking about gift-giving while we still have 90 degree-plus temperatures here in Austin.   Call it what you will, but I call it brilliant.

The news coverage is what really gets me.  If I had to hazard a guess, the economy is so fragile that we want to remind people to buy things other than gas and food, simply to increase the consumer shopping index and bolster the economy.  IMHO, we owe a debt of gratitude to Amazon and Taylor Swift for their combined efforts to prop up the entire U.S. economy in the face of so many external threats.  Without these two, things could be looking a lot worse right now, for sure.

I jest, but only slightly.  It feels tenuous, but when Amazon and other retailers can help make it easier for consumers to feed their appetites, things seem to go well.   It remains to be seen if this will be long-term sustainability, or whether we are simply propping things up for a longer period of time, delaying the inevitable pullback.

Either way, I hope Santazon came to your house and brought you all you wanted, and I know we can’t wait to see him again next month!