You’re used to hearing that it’s the “holiday shopping season.”

And you know when “back-to-school shopping” is coming up. 

We’re conditioned to be mindful of the major shopping dates on the calendar, which only further increases the hype – and the pressure on brands and retailers to make sure they have better deals than their competitors. And as we’re now approaching the peak of appliance shopping season (yes, it’s a real thing) in September and October, we’ve covered in this series’ first two blogs both the trends and approaches we’ve seen from major brands, and taken a deeper dive at two of the biggest names in the game.

Prime Day 2019 has come and gone.

The early returns are, as you’d expect, even bigger and eye-popping than they were a year ago. While the financials aren’t yet official, Amazon said it shattered previous Prime Day records this year; more than 175 million products were sold (via Yahoo! Finance) and sales surpassed Cyber Monday and Black Friday...combined.

Remember when we all went back-to-school shopping?

It was, at best, a bittersweet endeavor. 

On one hand, it basically meant that summer was over. Once the calendar hit August, we groaned as we embarked on the slow march toward the first day of school—which would be briefly interrupted by a little slice of retail euphoria. Get in the car, kids, we’re getting everything you need for the new school year and we’re going to do it in like, four hours. Our parents truly loved us, didn’t they?