If You're Thinking of Snagging an Amazon Prime Day Deal, Stop and Read This First

"Each year, Amazon hosts the world's largest ecommerce events, pairing discounts with same-day delivery. During its July 2025 Prime Day event, Amazon shipped an estimated 450 million items and drove $24.1 billion in spending across the entire online retail industry. What Amazon fails to report about its Prime Day operations, however, are the guaranteed spikes in carbon emissions that will linger in the atmosphere for centuries."

"Amazon's sales are not the only thing projected to rise. The environmental advocacy and research group Stand.earth estimates that the compound annual growth rate of Amazon's emissions will grow between 5.5 percent to 11.5 percent from now through the year 2030. Much of that increase comes from Prime Day events, highlighting the environmental unsustainability of Amazon's core business model, as well as the company's ongoing failure to follow through on its own widely publicized sustainability goals."

"Prime Day, Amazon's annual summer sales event, was first announced in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon's 20th anniversary. Seven years later, the same summer deals were brought to holiday shopping with the introduction of Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days in early October. This year's event will last 48 hours, starting October 7 and ending October 8. If Prime Big Deal Days maintain their typical 70 percent of Prime Day volume, the sales event could produce an estimated $16.9 billion in revenue."

Amazon's Prime Day events generate enormous sales and shipping volumes, with July 2025 Prime Day shipping an estimated 450 million items and driving $24.1 billion in industry spending. Prime Big Deal Days run in October and can produce roughly 70 percent of Prime Day volume, potentially generating $16.9 billion. Stand.earth projects Amazon's emissions to grow at a compound annual rate between 5.5 and 11.5 percent through 2030, with much of the increase tied to Prime Day operations. Stand.earth reports that Amazon's 2023 U.S. dock-to-door operations produced 5.8 million metric tons of CO2, equivalent to powering 1.2 million U.S. households.

Read at Truthout