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Amazon Prime Day Will Be Two Full Days This Year — and It’s Kicking Off With a Great TV Deal TODAY

By: Brad Tuttle
Brad Tuttle, expert in Personal finance, shopping, consumer trends, and Senior Editor at Money
Brad Tuttle
Senior Editor | Joined January 2014
Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.
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Published: Jun 25, 2019 4 min read
Amazon Prime
Whole Foods, owned by Amazon, sometimes has deals just for Amazon Prime members.
Smith Collection/Gado—Getty Images

When is Amazon Prime Day this year?

We now have a confirmed date for Amazon Prime Day 2019. Amazon just announced that its epic summer sale would officially start just after midnight Pacific Time on Monday, July 15, and last a full 48 hours. We also know what the first Prime Day deal will be this year — because there's a special early Prime Day discount that's already live at Amazon.

Right now, Amazon Prime members can take advantage of an early Prime Day deal on a Toshiba 43-inch HD Fire TV Edition Smart TV. This TV normally has a list price of $299.99, but was just put on sale for $179.99.

Courtesy of Amazon

Mind you, this is an early Amazon Prime Day deal, so that $179.99 price is available only for Amazon Prime members. (Generally speaking, you can snag Prime Day discounts only if you're a subscriber to Prime, the service that includes two-day free shipping on most Amazon purchases and costs $12.99 per month or $119 per year. New subscribers can sign up for a 30-day free trial to Amazon Prime.)

Last year, there were well over one million deals on Amazon Prime Day. So you can expect plenty more Amazon deals in the days to come, building up to their peak on Amazon Prime Day's 48-hour shopping marathon itself.

In the meantime, there are some other deals readily available — and they're not only at Amazon. Walmart actually has some TV deals right now that compete with the best sales you'll see from Amazon on Prime Day or even Black Friday.

For example, a 49-inch JVC Roku Smart TV that normally sells for $349.99 is on sale at Walmart right now for $199.99.

Courtesy of Walmart

For a little more money, you can get a larger TV deal right now at Walmart: A 55-inch 4K Sceptre TV is available at Walmart for $229.99. This 55-inch TV normally has a list price of $399.99, and it was priced at $249.99 last summer during Walmart's sale launched to coincide with Amazon Prime Day.

Courtesy of Walmart

Yet another compelling TV deal at Walmart is a 40-inch RCA Roku Smart TV on sale for $159.99 (list price: $399.99).

Courtesy of Walmart

All of these TV deals at Walmart come with free two-day shipping or free pickup, and there is no need to pay any subscription fees.

Meanwhile, if you're wondering whether Amazon or Walmart is cheaper in general, a new study provides some answers. The price-comparison report, from LendEDU, looks at prices for 50 identical items in different categories — home goods, food and beverages, tech and entertainment, etc. — at Amazon, Walmart, and Target.

While each retailer had the lowest prices on some items, overall Walmart came out as the low-price leader. If you purchased all 50 items compared in the study, you would have saved 1.79% by shopping at Walmart rather than Amazon. Walmart stood out in particular in the tech category: It was over 4% cheaper than Amazon on the $4,000 or so worth of tech items compared in the study.

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