Amazon is offering great savings deals this year for Prime Day, including food discounts through Whole Foods and Prime Now. So far, I’ve been stumped trying to cash in on them. Here’s what I’ve learned about Prime Day 2018, which started today at noon PST and to midnight the next day. Disclosure: I am not an Amazon affiliate and make no money from this post. Also see the update at the bottom about my experience on Prime Day Two.
All these deals are for Amazon Prime members only. You can get a free 30-day trial, after which it costs $119 a year or $13 a month.
Buy $10 at Whole Foods, Get $10 Free at Amazon.com
If you buy $10 worth of food or other qualifying merch at Whole Foods between 7/11 and 7/18, you’ll get $10 to spend on Amazon.com. The $10 goes into your account and will automatically be applied to your Prime Day online purchase. The $10 cannot be used at Whole Foods, though. The customer service rep told me that Whole Foods is owned by Amazon but not officially part of it.
I scored one of the last bottles of Frontera salsa, but the Field Roast sausage was out of stock. I did get some local organic blueberries (yaaay!), but had to go to customer service to find the price. The big sale display shown above was for the 18-ounce conventional berries from California. The North Carolina berries were $4.99 for a pint, about 12 1/2 ounces.
Prime Day is Crashing the Amazon.com Servers
So I came home to spend my $10 online only to find that I can’t do a search on Amazon.com. I’m able to get to some main pages and sometimes search, but overall Amazon.com is down. I can’t search in the main Amazon site.
Fortunately, I have a link from the Healthworks people to their Raw Cacao Powder. A two-pound bag is supposed to be on sale for $14.99 on Tuesday, July 17, from 2:40 to 8:40 PDT. If you can catch it in that window, you will save $6.
Save $20 on Prime Now Delivery … Maybe
If you have not yet tried the Prime Now two-hour delivery service, you can save $10 during Prime Day and get $10 to use on a future order. I started an online shopping cart and added to it until free shipping kicked in at about $35. Then I went to Whole Foods to see if the prices were the same. They were! Even the Frontera Chipotle Salsa was on sale for $3.99 (regularly $4.59).
Prime Day is Overwhelming Prime Now
When I tried to place my saved Prime Now order, I saw a “website temporarily unavailable” message instead. When I was finally able to log in, another screen told me that no delivery spots were available. I couldn’t even place the order for later delivery.
Bottom Line
You can save on Prime Day if your timing is right. Try off-peak hours. Check your email for deals and links from your favorite products.
You can also save by cooking at home, shopping at your farmers’ market, keeping a Stoup jar, and all the other Cook for Good tricks. These techniques won’t crash and won’t stress you out. In fact, I’m going to log off to go make peach cobbler.
Let me know in the comments below if you were able to score any deals during Amazon Prime or if you wanted to.
Update: Prime Day Two
Today I was able to log in, search, and order without a problem. My first Prime Delivery order ever came a few minutes before the predicted delivery window. The beans and salsa came in plain grocery bags, avoiding the heavier packaging of mailed orders. Overall, I saved about $60 during these two days, including the two $5 future credits on Prime Now gained by choosing a slower shipping method for the spices. On the other hand, Prime Now recommends including a $5 tip for each delivery, so really I saved about $50. I think Prime Day can be worth the effort if you buy only want you need and are willing to be patient.
