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10 Things To Know About Prime Day 2018

Also: What does Jeff Bezos keep on his refrigerator?

Priming The Pump For Prime Day

Prime Cut: Amazon has finally announced the official date for this year’s Prime Day summer promotion and, as TWICE sister site TechRadar revealed, it will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET on July 16, the day after the World Cup concludes, to avoid any global distractions.

TWICE Take: Amazon was mostly mum on specifics, but what we do know is that the members-only event has been extended by six hours, to 36 hours; will feature twice as many deals on its proprietary tech products like Echo and Fire TV; will be hyped by the unboxing in five major cities of giant cartons emblazoned with Amazon’s “smile” logo; and is already spurring similar “Black Friday in July”-type summer sales by other retailers.

See the full story at Amazon.

What Jeff Bezos Keeps On His Refrigerator

Prime Cut: You’d think the founder of Amazon, owner of the Washington Post, builder of a spaceship fleet and the richest person in the world would pretty much have it together at this point. But even Jeff Bezos — or more accurately, especially Jeff Bezos — needs a regular reminder of what really matters in life to help keep him on track.

TWICE Take: The Amazon CEO revealed in a May tweet that he keeps an inspirational poem attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson affixed to his fridge. The verse defines success by different criteria than Bezos’s $140 billion fortune, and suggests, among other things, that leaving the world a little bit better and having helped even one life breathe easier is the true measure of achievement.

See the full story at CNBC.

Mommy Can You Hear Me?

Prime Cut: Amazon has announced the winners in its Alexa Skills Challenge, in which hundreds of developers from 30 countries vied for tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to come up with the best life hacks for the ubiquitous virtual assistant.

TWICE Take: The $20,000 grand prize went to Mommy-gram, which allows young children to text their parents by speaking into an Echo device, and relays mommy’s response by voice. There were also 16 finalist and bonus prizes of $5,000 each, and free Echo Dots for everyone else.

See the full story at Amazon.

Keep On Truckin’

Prime Cut: Amazon’s explosive growth — the company accounted for 44 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales last year, according to eMarketer — has strained its fulfillment system, forcing the e-tailer to look beyond traditional carriers like FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service.

TWICE Take: Now, in an effort to buttress its distribution network amid demand for same-day and even one-hour deliveries, Amazon is seeding new trucking companies to help bring home the goods. The e-tailer envisions the startups as dedicated delivery fleets with up to 40 Prime-branded vehicles, and hopes to foster hundreds of these regional carriers with training, delivery technology, operational support and discounts on vehicle leases, fuel, insurance and Amazon-branded uniforms.

See the full story at TWICE.

Cutting The Cord

Prime Cut: No, not the cable bill. In this case it’s all about Amazon Prime, and one man’s public debate over whether or not to leave the $119/year membership program he joined five years ago.

TWICE Take: While still loving Primary perks like free two-day shipping, discounts at Whole Foods, and access to original movies and TV shows, Gizmodo senior editor Adam Clark Estes complains that they’re all ploys to get him and his 100 million fellow subscribers to spend more — something that Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) confirmed last year.

See the full story at Gizmodo.

Amazon Quote Of The Week

“It does feel crazy that I’m paying Amazon over $100 a year simply to encourage myself to buy more sh*t on Amazon.” — Gizmodo senior editor Adam Clark Estes, on why he might finally bow out of Amazon Prime

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