I want the new Amazon Echo Dot, but I’ve been conditioned to wait until Black Friday

The new Amazon Echo Dot with Clock is the smart speaker I want in my tiny New York City apartment. It’s small, yet stylish, packs decent sound, has Alexa built-in, and now it shines an LED clock through the fabric sides.

It remains affordable, too, except… I’m certain it’ll be cheaper for Black Friday 2019. 

I’ve become so conditioned to Amazon Black Friday sales, when Amazon slashes the retail prices of its Echo speakers. In fact, its entire range of Amazon-branded tech and appliances typically see price drops from mid-November to early December.

That’s made buying newly announced Amazon gadgets difficult at launch. Outside of seasons like Amazon Prime Day and Cyber Monday, I’ve become less inclined to make purchases – big or small. Even the small ones add up when I buy so much tech.

What’s two months?

Black Friday 2019 is November 29 this year, and the date for Cyber Monday is later than usual: December 2. But it’s all still just two months away from today.

The fact is, I’ve become conditioned to shop on Amazon for its big tech products just two times a year. You’re never very far from Prime Day or Black Friday when you think about it. Prime Day 2019 was two months ago. The longest stretch is seven months between January and July.

In effect, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has created a Pavlovian mindset for habitual online deal seekers like myself. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad for the Seattle-based company or society at large, but I know I’m going to be paying less for smart home tech I use myself (and gift to my friends and family).

As tempted as I am to get my apartment up to speed with the latest Echo Dot (I don’t have one… yet), I’m going to set my non-Alexa alarm clock to November 29. There’s no certainty it will see a discount, but, while I’m not a gambling man, I’m betting it will drop in price. All my chips are on Black Friday.