Amazon says this year’s Prime Day was its biggest ever

Amazon says this year’s Prime Day was its biggest ever

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon saw record sales for Prime Day this week as Prime members purchased more items than ever before, the company announced Thursday.

The Seattle e-commerce giant, which does not disclose how much it earns during the popular discount event, also said “millions” of customers joined Prime in the past three weeks to take advantage of the discount event, which ended right before midnight Pacific Standard Time on Thursday.

“Prime Day 2024 was a huge success thanks to the millions of Prime members globally who turned to Amazon for fantastic deals,” Doug Herrington, an Amazon executive who leads the company’s Prime and online shopping business, said in a statement included in the announcement.

Data from some third-party groups also indicated shoppers spent more this year during the two-day event.

Mayor Gillingham poised for repeat

Incumbent mayoral candidate Scott Gillingham remains in the lead among decided voters in a new poll that suggests a majority of Winnipeggers want change ahead of Wednesday’s election.

Gillingham was backed by 36 per cent of decided voters in an Abacus Data survey released Friday, followed by candidates Kevin Klein (19 per cent) and Mike Vogiatzakis and a surging Noah Redden, who were tied for third (both at 14 per cent).

While a majority of respondents expressed a desire for a new mayor, Curtis Brown, a vice-president with Abacus, said “none of the other candidates has convincingly made the case that they represent the best change.”

“In the absence of that, Scott Gillingham definitely has the advantage. He looks likely to be able to win,” Brown said.

Alberta: More federalist than you thought

Avert your eyes if you don’t like hard-core. This is a hard-core column about the hard-core Alberta separatists who hijacked a party, corrupted a process and failed in their fevered fervour to break up Canada.

First, be of good cheer. Canada won Monday night’s referendum in Alberta. Decisively. Three-quarters of the votes cast were for Option 1: “Alberta should remain a province of Canada.” Only one in four Alberta voters opted for a referendum on separation.

Alberta won, too. That strong vote against separation means the province can look ahead, confident the independence fever dream is boxed. A true win-win and a sad rarity in politics these days.

Be warned, though. Those hard-core separatists are hard dogs to keep on the porch, as the expression goes. They are already agitating to be taken more seriously than the votes warrant. They intend to flex whatever muscle memory remains to depose Premier Danielle Smith from her leadership of the United Conservative Party. Dis-united Conservative Party, anyone?

Building generational equity

Ayobimpe Omisore is a Winnipeg single mother of four who knows all too well about working just to make the rent.

A little more than a year ago, she was struggling to pay $2,400 a month for a two-bedroom unit in St. Norbert.

She picked up extra shifts whenever she could as a health-care aide to keep up with the costs.

“I was lamenting about it at work one day, and a colleague said, ‘If you’re paying this much on rent, I think you can afford a mortgage,’” says Omisore, who came to Canada four years ago from Nigeria where she worked as a logistics manager.

Frustration on menu as St. James construction drags on

Nearly four months of construction outside the front door of a longtime Portage Avenue restaurant has driven away customers and left its owner struggling to cover operating expenses.

Garden grandees

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity at Robert and Susan Choquette’s spacious rural property in Oakbank. They have been busy preparing multiple gardens for winter, digging and storing scores of canna rhizomes, and bringing tender plants indoors for the winter.

The couple’s stunning property was featured on this year’s Gardens of Distinction tour by Nature Manitoba which was held on July 4.

Visitors were wowed by the abundant plantings of flowering annuals in a long, curved border at the entrance to the garden. A mixed planting reminiscent of a traditional formal border includes marigolds and classic red salvia (Salvia splendens) with taller layers of colourful zinnias and stately, white-flowered Nicotiana.

“I would have had more zinnias this year if it hadn’t been for the cold weather we experienced in spring,” says Robert, who is an avid gardener. “I transplanted 350 seedlings in the spring and kept them in our gazebo, but I only had one heater running and 80 per cent of them died.” Robert started new plants from seed and filled one entire bed with zinnias which quickly grew thigh-high once warmer temperatures arrived.