It looks like Amazon has decided that two days isn’t enough for its annual Prime Day deal celebration. This year, the event will last a startling four days, running from 3AM ET on Tuesday, July 8th, through 3AM ET on Saturday, July 12th. (Why is it still called Prime Day instead of Prime Days? Dunno — ask Amazon.)
The nice thing about having a longer sale period is that you have extra days to make up your mind if you’re not sure you want a specific item (although there is the possibility that some products might sell out before the four-day sale ends). But these sales are only for members of Amazon’s Prime program. If you’re interested in the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Amazon Prime, don’t worry — Amazon makes it very easy.
If you’re attracted by the goodies being offered but haven’t signed up for Prime, Amazon makes it very easy
Besides giving access to Prime Day bargains, Amazon includes a bunch of features to entice people to sign up for its Prime service. These include access to its streaming video service, Prime Video, which sadly is no longer ad-free, though you can pay extra for that; free and faster shipping on purchases (with two-day or one-day delivery for many items and even same-day delivery for some); discounts on a selection of Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods groceries; Amazon Music ad-free audio streaming (not to be confused with the more extensive Amazon Music Unlimited, which is an additional $10.99 per month for Prime members and $11.99 per month for non-members); Prime Gaming, which includes a free Twitch channel subscription; unlimited photo storage (along with 5GB of video storage); and Prime Reading, which gives you access to a rotating library of comics, books, and magazines as well as early access to a curated selection of new books. Amazon also added discounts at BP and Amaco gas stations last year.
You can share your Prime account with one other adult, too, along with up to four teens and four children — shared benefits include fast delivery, Prime streaming access, purchased ebooks and other media, and early access to Lightning Deals. (Some features, such as Music Prime, are not shared.) And you get a 30-day free trial, so you can try it (and the Prime Day specials) out.
We should probably mention the obvious: you can sign up for a Prime membership, take advantage of the free 30-day trial, and then cancel it once the Prime Day sale is over. But you can only do that once, so you won’t be able to use that trick next year when Prime Day comes around.
Update, June 19th, 2025: This article was first published on June 9th, 2021, and has been updated to reflect new information regarding Amazon’s Prime Day sale.
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