How 19 years of Amazon Prime has satisfied our need for speed

Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.) Our bookstore did a good job keeping shelves stocked with a balance of the more worthy popular hits and smaller, better fare. But we couldn’t have every book a customer might want, so we offered to order any in-print title. If a distributor had it, it’d take about a week to get in, longer if we had to go through the publisher. That seemed fine for most customers. But sometimes “about a week” was too long. A few people came right out and said, “Nah, I’ll order it on Amazon.” In 2005, Amazon launched Prime, the membership program that, for $79 a year, gave customers unlimited two-day shipping on most orders. At launch, CEO Jeff Bezos called it “‘all-you-can-eat’ express shipping.” No one knew at the time how hungry the world was for Amazon’s brand of convenience. And now, nearly two decades later, we’ve seen the shifts that accommodate that buffet — in labor, retail and the entire customer experience. Prime wasn’t an overnight success. It’s estimated that six years after launch, just four million households paid for the service. But 10 years later, in 2021, Bezos claimed it had accrued 200 million members worldwide. Outside of that... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2024-03-08 14:15:57 UTC ]
News tagged with: #statistically inevitable #10-year mark #stores failed #physical spaces #primary strength #zero-effort buying #cheapest place #greased rails #market data #trillion-dollar valuation #massive shadow #human element #commercial transactions #20th anniversary #good book #bookstore #bookshop

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tracking 20 Years of Bookstore Chains

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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American Printer Magazine Closes After 128 Years

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Food Network Magazine Raises Rate Base for Sixth Time in Two Years

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indie opened by A A Milne's son to close after 60 years

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Set to Publish Pop Author

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[ The New York Times | 2011-08-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon publishing a "concern"—Barnsley

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon bypasses Apple rules with Cloud Reader app

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 10 Dumbest Things I’ve Heard This Year

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon quietly launches Kindle networking site

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 10 Dumbest Things I've Heard All Year

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-08-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Irish authorities clear Amazon Book Depository acquisition

Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Wed, 27/07/2011 - 07:40 The Irish Competition Authority has cleared the acquisition of The Book Depository by Amazon after a three-week investigation into the deal. In a short statement, the authority said: "[We have] formed the view that the... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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