As Amazon Prime Day continues to expand its reach, Amazon’s competitors will keep trying to beat the retail behemoth at its own game — or at least claim second place.
Prime Day is now a notable shopping holiday, but it’s also an Amazon trademark, so retailers are making up their own terminology for this two-day shopping event. Walmart and Microsoft are even starting early — Microsoft’s deals went live on Friday, Oct. 9 while Walmart’s “Big Save Sale” kicks off on Sunday, Oct. 11 and runs through Thursday, Oct. 15. (Prime Day itself is Oct. 13 and 14.) Best Buy is branding Oct. 13 as the kickoff to Black Friday, even going so far as to guarantee Black Friday pricing on certain products, i.e. if you buy something now and it’s cheaper on Black Friday, Best Buy will refund you the difference. (The Black Friday price guarantee is only available to My Best Buy members, but unlike Amazon Prime it’s a free program.)
In previous years other retailers have actually offered better sales than Amazon, so be sure to do your research before dropping serious cash. That’s true whenever making a big purchase, but doubly so on these big shopping events when companies hope that you’ll get caught up in the hype.
So, like we’re doing with Amazon, we’ll be updating this post with the best non-Prime Day gaming and entertainment deals from non-Amazon retailers. If you’re not a Prime member, want to avoid shopping at Amazon, or just want to comparison shop, this is the place to look.
