Amazon employees load packages on carts before being put on to trucks for distribution for Amazon's annual Prime Day event at an Amazon's DAX7 delivery station on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in South Gate, Calif. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon saw record sales for Prime Day this week as Prime members purchased more items than ever before, the company announced Thursday.
The Seattle e-commerce giant, which does not disclose how much it earns during the popular discount event, also said “millions” of customers joined Prime in the past three weeks to take advantage of the discount event, which ended right before midnight Pacific Standard Time on Thursday.
“Prime Day 2024 was a huge success thanks to the millions of Prime members globally who turned to Amazon for fantastic deals,” Doug Herrington, an Amazon executive who leads the company’s Prime and online shopping business, said in a statement included in the announcement.
Data from some third-party groups also indicated shoppers spent more this year during the two-day event.
Adobe Analytics, which tracks online sales, said consumers spent $14.2 billion on Tuesday and Wednesday, up 11% compared to last year.
Adobe noted the growth was driven partly by back-to-school shopping with big spikes in spending for products such as backpacks, lunchboxes and other stationary supplies. Consumers also spent more on electronics and home appliances, it added.
Adobe's numbers are not adjusted for inflation. However, it said consumer spending this year has not been driven by higher prices, but new demand. It pointed to its own data, which shows online prices have fallen for 22 months and were down 4.2% year-over-year in June.
Last week, the Labor Department reported overall consumer prices declined 0.1% from May to June after having remained flat the previous month.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
