The best deals from everywhere except Amazon

If there’s one thing Amazon loves more than being a union-busting monopolist hell-bent on eradicating worker’s rights while wasting loads of perfectly good products in the process, it’s inventing fake holidays and sales events to disguise efforts to clear out their warehouses. However, just because Amazon’s marketing has sucked up all the oxygen doesn’t mean there aren’t great deals and cool stuff to find today that won’t make Super-yacht enthusiast Jeff Bezos richer in the process (heck, some of the deals on Amazon probably aren’t that good in the first place). We’ve rounded up some great deals on cool stuff from non-Amazon retailers, along with a few full-priced products that are just plain good.

THE GOODS

Believe the hype on Air-fryers, but the almighty toaster-oven form factor is still king. So, add the perfectly even cooking capabilities of an air-fry to a toaster oven and you have the ultimate small kitchen appliance. Unless I’m making a big meal or dish, I’ve found that having an Air-fryer Toaster Oven in my kitchen lets me leave my traditional oven to rest for most cooks and bakes. The results are just too good from the air-fryer.

Expensive vacuums are worth it, but at least deal days are a great time to get one of them at a not-so-eye-watering price. This Hoover vacuum is more than 50% off today and is great for apartments and small homes, plus it features a detachable handheld for cleaning tabletops and other high-up surfaces.

Lutron is the “you know if you know” of smart home tech. YouTube channel Snazzy Labs made a great video about their efforts to build a painless-to-run smart home that explains why Lutron’s stuff is so great, but it comes down to the fact that everything can run locally, and runs well. While it does work with cloud-based assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, Lutron works with a wide array of platforms including Apple’s privacy-focused HomeKit. From light-switch replacements to custom blinds, Lutron has a suite of products to help anyone get started on a smart-home that doesn’t have to rely on Alexa, share your internet without your consent, or help cops.

If you’ve been suffering from the scourge of the cheap and flimsy shoe rack you bought on a whim after moving into your new place, it’s time for a more permanent solution. These large, durable, and stackable shoe boxes let you show off your sneaker collection and get to the pair you want quickly no matter how big your collection got during lockdown shopping sprees. Normally $65 at The Container Store, a 6-pack is 25% off right now. They feature a durable hinge and are large enough to fit a high-top pair of sneakers, so they should fit into the life of most sneakerheads.

You STILL can’t add an NVME drive to your PS5 to expand its storage for next-gen gaming, but at least Microsoft and now Sony will let you keep your games, old and new, on an external drive. While you can’t play next-gen games kept on this WD drive, you can play your entire PS4 or Xbox One library off of it, and use it as cold storage for any next-gen games if you don’t want to constantly redownload them. With 5 terabytes of space, it’s plenty for all but the most extreme use-cases. Best of all, it’s discounted by $54 today. When you finally can expand your PS5 internal storage later this year, it’ll make a great way to store your photos to free up space on your computer.

The ongoing chip shortage means that you shouldn’t count on the normally predictable cycle of TV discounts this year if you’ve been waiting to upgrade your TV to something more premium, but there are still deals to be found on the audio-end of home theater. This is TCL’s highest-end soundbar and features virtualized Dolby Atmos that should be able to fill most rooms with booming sound with a wide stage. If you have a Roku TV it will automatically configure itself to your TV’s settings and remote, but it will still provide a great experience with any TV capable of outputting Dolby Atmos audio. It’s $50 off and a great first step to your home theater upgrade while you wait for your dream TV to come into your price range.

Inspired by Call of Duty: Warzone’s final weapon skin, Dbrand’s Damascus pattern, which launched this week, is its most striking special edition collection in ages. I’m admittedly too clumsy to brave the process of applying a full-coverage skin on my phone, tablet, or laptop, but these sure do make it tempting to try again. The drop includes three glossy colors that feature a holographic ink: “Warzone” blue, Holo-red, and Holo-green. There’s also Matte-black to boot. You can pick Damascus up for the entirety of devices Dbrand supports, including their very good Grip case which in my experience is very easy to install a skin on, and they of course pair well with the company’s Darkplates for PS5.