Although Black Friday is still the best time to buy almost everything, summer sales events have become almost as big in recent years. With retail giants like Amazon turning July sales into a full-blown event, summer time is now an excellent time to find deals on tech, video games, and just about everything else.
If you're hoping to save some money during the summer deals season this year, there are a few different sale dates worth marking on your calendar. We've gathered some of the biggest upcoming summer sales events we know about to help you plan out your online shopping in 2024.
1. Fourth of July Sales (Now - July 7)
Like every major U.S. holiday, the Fourth of July is a great time to find discounts at most retailers. Similar to Memorial Day, many of the best sales start arriving way before the actual day the holiday is on. Retailers like Walmart, Target, Old Navy, and REI all have Fourth of July promotions happening now with various different end dates. This upcoming weekend will likely be the best time to shop these sales due to the fourth landing on a Thursday this year.
2. Steam Summer Sale (June 27 - July 11)
The next big sale you can look forward to is one of the biggest video game sales of the year. The Steam Summer Sale is one of the best times of the year to buy PC games and usually offers some of the best ones at a discount. Steam's annual sale kicks off tomorrow and runs all the way through July 11.
You can shop for Steam games in the app, on the online store page, or via your Steam Deck if you have one.
3. Walmart Prime Day Sale (July 8-11)
Although Walmart is currently running a Fourth of July sale, the retail giant recently announced its biggest sale ever set to drop the week before Amazon Prime Day. The event is set to start on Monday, July 8 and run through Thursday, July 11. The press release shows a preview of some of the deals you can expect when the sale goes live, which includes everything from vacuums, to swingsets and Switch games.
The sale officially starts for all customers at 5 p.m. ET on July 8, but you can get early access to the deals if you have a Walmart+ membership.
4. Amazon Prime Day Sale (July 16-17)
Amazon has officially announced the dates for Prime Day 2024. The Amazon deals event is set to take place on July 16-17 this year. The online retailer is already going all out on promotion for the event by offering free PC games for Prime members as well as big discounts on popular subscriptions. You can expect more early Prime Day deals to roll out as the event gets closer. And while it is primarily an Amazon sale, you can likely expect counter sales from other retailers happen at the same time.
Some of the best parts of Prime Day are reserved for Amazon Prime members, but Amazon still offers a 30-day free trial new subscribers can take advantage of.
5. Labor Day Sales (August 30 - September 2)
After Prime Day, the next big sale event to look forward to is Labor Day weekend. Similar to other U.S. holidays, pretty much every major retailer will have some sort of sale to coincide with the three-day weekend. Although there is often a wide range of sales, some of the most popular sale items during this time coincide with back-to-school shopping. Because of this, it's one of the best times to buy a new laptop or find clothing discounts from popular stores. It's really the last big sale until Black Friday if you don't count Amazon's October Prime Day.
Jacob has written for various different publications over his career covering commerce, tech, games, entertainment. You can find the bulk of his previous work at Digital Trends and The Manual where he covered tech deals, Netflix, and food.
