Credit: Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Target isn’t letting Amazon hog the sales.

Amazon’s Prime Day sale, one of the largest online shopping events of the modern era, is set for October 13 and 14. Prime Day is often scheduled for the summer months, but Amazon was forced to delay the event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as Prime Day typically draws more user activity than both Black Friday and Cyber Monday for Amazon, it was unlikely to be cancelled entirely. When Prime Day occurs, other retailers tend to give Amazon a wider birth, as they are a notoriously difficult company to compete with in terms of sales events. This year, though, Target has decided to stoke competition with the ecommerce giant.


Target announced today that its own Deal Days sales event will be held on October 13 and 14, the same days as Prime Day. “The two-day event will feature digital deals on hundreds of thousands of items, more than double last year,” the company said in a public statement, adding that more information will be available later in the week.

Back in July, Target announced its intent to launch some of its holiday prices earlier this year, gradually spreading them out over the October to December stretch. In an effort to both take the upcoming strain of Black Friday off of retail locations and give more incentive to users to come to them instead of Amazon, Target will begin this early rollout alongside their Deal Days event. In their statement, Target said that their “biggest holiday deals will be available earlier than ever, so you can shop safely and conveniently without worrying about missing out on deals that usually come later in the season.”

Credit: Amazon

While Amazon Prime’s next-day shipping is an attractive element in this competition, the ubiquity of Target’s physical storefronts allow for same-day delivery to some locations, as well as in-store pick-up and drive-up. Whether this will give Target the edge this October remains to be seen.