So much for Black Friday.
Amazon released a statement Wednesday afternoon — about 14 hours after the launch of its “Prime Day” — saying the 24-hour mega-sale, by at least one measure, had surpassed last year’s big day of holiday shopping.
“Prime Day peak order rates have already surpassed 2014 Black Friday,” Amazon said.
“Prime members have bought tens of thousands of Fire TV Sticks, 35,000 Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray sets, 28,000 Rubbermaid sets, and 4,000 Echos in 15 minutes,” the statement continued. “The Kate Spade purse was gone in less than a minute. The 1.2K of $999 TVs sold out in less than 10 minutes and there are thousands more deals coming. New deals start every ten minutes until late tonight.”
Both Amazon and Walmart launched their big sales on thousands of products Wednesday morning at 12:01 am PT.
Walmart’s site featured a banner urging customers to compare their prices to Amazon’s and announcing “thousands of new Rollbacks!”
Amazon’s site features several tabs which allow customers logged into Amazon Prime to see a list of deals that they’ve already missed as well as upcoming specials.
Some of the deals on Walmart included an RCA TV for $399.99 (marked down from $799.99), a Flexible Flyer Play Park swing set valued at $249 for $159 and a 3-piece patio set for $79 (originally $129).
Walmart also released “Atomic” deals which include savings on ipads and laptops.
Amazon’s deals included Bose SoundTrue On-Ear headphones for $79.99 (originally $119.95), a 42-piece plastic Rubbermaid tupperware set for $14.99 (down from $35.00), and a $199.00 Brother printer for $159.99.
Amazon promoted its sale as having more discounts than Black Friday. Although the sale is only open to Prime members, Amazon is offering free 30-day trials so anyone can partake.
Amazon says, “With more deals than Black Friday, members will enjoy thousands of deals from sought-after devices and tools to popular toys and pet supplies.”
Walmart criticized Amazon for only extending the sale to Prime members and said its sale was meant to “stand up for customers.”
Walmart says, “We’re kicking off some awesome deals this week that will be available for everybody with no hidden costs or admission fees, and they won’t be available for just one day.”
After being ripped on social media by customers who were less than impressed with the deals, Amazon responded in a statement to CNNMoney.
“Prime Day has been exciting so far,” Amazon said. “We have years of experience with these types of events and we stagger the deals to make sure the fun will last through tonight.”