Amazon’s Prime Day is a big deal: A frenzy of summertime sales that now includes a literal music festival headlined by artists like Taylor Swift, Dua Lupa, and SZA—free to stream for Amazon Prime subscribers, of course. It usually takes place in July, but that won’t be the case in 2020, according to a Reuters report that says Amazon will postpone the event until at least August because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The report says the delay will leave Amazon with five million extra devices, like the voice-controlled Echo speakers, that it may now be forced to sell at a discount. Amazon senior vice president and general counsel David Zapolsky wrote in meeting notes obtained by Reuters that the delay could result in a loss of up to $300 million, although a $100 million hit is more likely.
That’s approximately 0.01 percent of the $1 trillion market valuation Amazon achieved in January, by the way, although the ongoing pandemic has pared that back somewhat.
The report of the delay apparently came from the same notes in which Zapolsky, as reported by Vice, strategized a campaign to discredit fired warehouse worker Christian Smalls as “not smart or articulate.” Smalls was fired earlier this week after leading a walkout at a Staten Island distribution warehouse over workplace safety concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak. Amazon said Smalls was let go for violating orders to self-quarantine after he was found to have been in close contact with another worker with a confirmed case of Covid-19.
An Amazon rep declined to comment on the report.