Amazon shared Thursday that U.S. Prime subscription members purchased more than 25 million items with same-day or next-day delivery on the first day of Prime Big Deal Days, which ran October 10-11. For the second year, Amazon kicked off the holiday shopping season with the two-day shopping event for Prime members.
Hundreds of thousands of the items purchased during the event were delivered within four hours of purchase.
“Prime Big Deal Days was a strong start to the holiday shopping season, offering Prime members an exclusive early opportunity to save and surpassing our expectations. This event outpaced last year’s holiday kick-off event, with more Prime members shopping this year,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, in a statement. “Millions of Prime packages in the U.S. have already been delivered, and we’ll continue to offer fast, free delivery across our wide selection throughout the holidays.”
The influx of orders, however, led to worker retaliation, as Amazon drivers in Los Angeles picketed a local Amazon warehouse Thursday.
"Prime Week is dangerous and exhausting for Amazon workers — both drivers and warehouse workers, both permanents and temps," said Michael Lieb, an Amazon driver and Teamsters local 396 member, in a statement. "It's double the work for the same low pay. Safety is tossed out the window to further Amazon's profits. We are on strike to stop Amazon's unfair labor practices and demand that Amazon take responsibility for our safety and pay."
Amazon drivers and dispatchers began their strike over unfair labor practices on June 24 and have since picketed 18 warehouses across the country.
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