The Daily Valet. - 7/11/23, Tuesday
✔️ It's Prime Time
Tuesday, July 11th Edition
By Cory Ohlendorf, Valet. Editor
How much do you think we'll spend on Amazon, over our lifetimes?
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Today’s Big Story
It’s Prime Time
How Amazon turned a sleepy season for sales into retail's biggest day of the year
Let's go back in time to July, 2015. The Minions movie was topping the box office and Taylor Swift's “Bad Blood” was seemingly everywhere. It wasn't so long ago, but back then, the dead of summer wasn't exactly the hottest time of the year for retail.The summer months tend to see less spending than the spring months, holiday sprees are still months away, and shipping capacity is usually running well. What better time to offer big promotions and speedy delivery? And so, for Amazon's 20th anniversary, the company introduced a virtual-shopping event that offered Amazon Prime members exclusive deals over a 24-hour period.And you could say the retail landscape was never the same after that. Amazon continues to scale Prime Day to record-breaking heights. Now, it spans pre-sale days and then there's the full 48-hour sale itself. Last year, purchases of more than 300 million individual items brought in over $12 billion in sales, according to estimates from Digital Commerce 360, compared to less than $1 billion when it first began. And now, says Dr. Ross Steinman, a professor of consumer psychology at Widener University, all the excitement around Prime Day has helped cement its place in the retail calendar among giants like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, establishing it as what Steinman calls “the pantheon of consumer holidays.”Of course, companies had tried the idea of a special e-commerce sales holiday before. In China, Alibaba was offering an annual spree of deals for “Singles Day” on November 11. Billions in sales and a wave of free publicity caught the attention of Amazon's international VP, Diego Piacentini, who pitched the concept to Jeff Bezos, according to Brad Stone in the book Amazon Unbound. Bezos was a fan, so long as the company could use the event to drive sign-ups for Prime.But the kick-off didn't exactly go smoothly. Insider reports that Amazon underestimated the response from customers and when the sale launched in Japan, it quickly crashed the website—and the frenzy flowed across Europe and into the U.S., where sold-out items and trivial discounts led shoppers to roast the company online. But despite the technical glitches, people still bought tons of stuff—some 34.4 million items—and signed up for Prime in droves, with Amazon adding 1.2 million new members. It was, quite literally, Christmas in July, and ensured that Prime Day would only get bigger and better and more unavoidable with each passing year.
Your Alternative:
The e-commerce giant isn’t the only sale in town. Some of our favorite retailers are jumping in, too. Here are our picks.
A Long-Awaited Data Sharing Deal
It's good news for Meta, Google and scores of other companies ... for now, anyway
The United States and the European Union finalized a deal Monday allowing major technology companies to share data across the proverbial pond. The decision adopted by the European Commission is the final step in a yearslong process and restores the ability for thousands of businesses to easily transfer the personal information of European citizens to servers located in the United States, and vice versa, in the face of surveillance concerns by privacy advocates.According to the New York Times, the agreement was a top priority for the world's biggest technology companies and thousands of other multinational businesses that rely on the free flow of data. The deal replaces an accord known as Privacy Shield, which the European Union's highest court invalidated in 2020 because it did not include enough privacy protections.And the decision resolves—for now, at least—years of uncertainty about the future of transatlantic data flows that U.S. officials say support more than $1 trillion in annual economic activity. But civil liberties advocates on Monday sharply criticized the framework as too similar to the previous Privacy Shield, signaling that the new framework is likely to be tested with its own court challenges.
FYI:
Some members of the European Parliament (which had no direct role in the negotiations), said the agreement fails to provide strong enough privacy protections.
Partner
Are you staying hydrated? Even if you’re downing water, don’t overlook those all-important electrolytes.
The World’s Largest Cruise Ship
Royal Caribbean’s ‘Icon of the Seas’ just made its maiden test voyage
With all due respect to Royal Caribbean, their latest “ship” doesn't look very ... regal. In fact, it looks more like an oversized Rube Goldberg machine, bobbing in the ocean. It's called 'Icon of the Seas' and it's an absolutely gigantic vessel. Set to be the largest in the world when it officially sets sail in January, it's five times bigger than the Titanic.According to CNN, the ship will comfortably hold some 5,610 passengers and over 2,350 crew. The big boat's piece de resistance will be the world's largest waterpark at sea. Named Category 6, it'll feature six record-breaking water slides, which canterliever over the edge of the ship in bright, bold colors. Though guests who want a more leisurely experience can also relax in the boat's seven pools and nine whirlpools, or stroll along a tree-lined promenade.The brand says the ship was designed as a “first-of-its-kind combination of the best of every vacation.” The first cruise is already sold out, but starting in February 2024, interested cruisers could set out from Miami and spend seven nights onboard the Icon sailing through eastern or western Caribbean with ports of call including the Bahamas, Mexico, Honduras, St. Maarten and St. Thomas.
FYI:
In 2022, there were 323 cruise ships sailing around the world.
Do Edibles Look Too Snack-Like?
The FTC sent cease and desist letters to companies making THC Doritos, Nerds Ropes, etc.
In 2023, marijuana is legal for recreational use in nearly half of U.S. states (we're currently at 23, as well as the District of Columbia and Guam). But, with all the back and forth of legalizing cannabis, a lot of unregulated products have slipped through to the mainstream.The government is, predictably, not very happy about it—but theirs is currently more of a branding concern as well as a THC-related one. According to The Takeout, there are so many unofficial weed stores popping up and not enough regulation. Which means sometimes you have no idea what you're getting: “A bag of 40mg gummies could actually be 400mg or vice versa. Many edibles are also designed to look and taste like popular snacks, from Doritos to Life Savers.”Because kids might mistake the cannabis products for regular candy or snacks, police have seized such products in the past, citing safety concerns. Additionally, the brands themselves have sued makers of cannabis edibles because of the products' resemblance to their mainstream products. And now, the FTC has gotten involved, sending cease and desist letters to several companies in six different states, all of which make marijuana-infused snacks in packaging that's nearly identical to the products' non-infused counterparts.
Dig Deeper:
John Hopkins University looks at the science and safety of edibles and what's getting left out of the public conversation about recreational cannabis.
In Other News
Here's what's at stake when leaders and officials gather in Lithuania.
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You Need a Hydration Strategy
When it’s hot out, make sure you’re replenishing your electrolytes
When your body gets dehydrated, you start to feel sluggish, and both your mood and energy drop. Athletic performance and cognitive function both suffer, and to put it simply, you just feel lousy. That's why hydration is so important—especially when it's hot out like this. Because the hotter it is, the more you sweat and the easier it is for you to become dehydrated.Sweating is basically your body's natural defense system against overheating. The only downside is that when you sweat, you lose vital electrolytes. And those are important minerals (including sodium and potassium) that support a number of bodily functions, including energy production. That's why your hydration strategy should include a sodium-rich electrolyte supplement. LMNT is the single-severing drink mix that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means a generous dose of salt, along with potassium and magnesium but no sugar, artificial ingredients or colors. Simply empty a packet into your water bottle and feel a surge of energy return.
Try It:
Free sample pack with any purchase. That's eight single serving packets with any order.
Shopping
What We’re Buying
The top products picks, now on sale
Amazon Prime Day is live and the 48-hour shopping event has become something of an overwhelming barrage of deals and countdowns all designed to make you click that “buy now” button. But in truth, it's also a great time to stock up on staples or if you've been holding off on buying that new beard trimmer or air purifier, this is when you can typically score the best price of the year.We've pulled together a quick list of all the Valet.-approved products that are currently marked down for Prime Day—many of which won't be this cheap again for a while.
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