Everything You Need to Know About Amazon Prime Day
David Muhlbaum: If there's ever a year that Amazon Prime Day would be set to overtake Black Friday as America's big shopping event, 2020 would seem to be it. Like many online retailers, Amazon has been busy, busy, busy, fulfilling orders from people choosing to shop from home rather than risk a store visit. Our own Amazon expert, Kiplinger.com online editor Bob Niedt, will help us separate hype from real savings. On today's show, Sandy and I discuss how America will celebrate Halloween in the time of coronavirus, and also talk about Kiplinger's best strategies for snowbirds. If you're wondering what a snowbird is, well, stick around.
- Episode Length: 00:26:09
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David Muhlbaum: Welcome to Your Money's Worth. I'm Kiplinger.com senior editor David Muhlbaum, joined by senior editor Sandy Block. Sandy, how are you?
Sandy Block: I'm good, David, how are you?
David Muhlbaum: I'm doing all right. I was in the store the other day and in a time when so much has changed, and not generally for the good, I appreciate signs of normalcy. Like supermarkets filling their seasonal shelves with bags of candy for Halloween. I'm like, "Okay, so that's on, then, right?"
Sandy Block: Well, maybe, sort of. Halloween is a big deal, not just to kids looking to score candy, but there's money on the line for the hard hit retail sector. The National Retail Federation tracks this and they say that 2019 Halloween spending totaled almost $9 billion.
David Muhlbaum: Okay, so that was 2019. What's going to happen in 2020?
Sandy Block: Well, less, but not as much less as you might think. They're projecting about $8 billion this year. So down a billion, but it's likely that Halloween will be different. And what people will do and buy was forecast to change, in some cases pretty significantly.
David Muhlbaum: Okay. Okay. I'm curious. So what's up and what's down? A high school classmate of mine runs a fright house outside Raleigh, North Carolina. And I was impressed to see that he's having a season this year at all at the Haunted Farm. They're making all sorts of adaptations to be COVID-safe, including, and here I quote, "No closeup contact between haunters and patrons." I guess they can still scare you with a six foot long pike or they'll take the mask off.
Sandy Block: That's the scariest thing of all.
David Muhlbaum: But they say they're going to operate at 25% capacity, and that's got to hurt revenues.
: That's right and that hurt is going to be all around. I mean . . . haunted houses, parties, hay rides and even actual trick or treating are expected to suffer because the pandemic is still with
