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 ]
Written By: Caroline Horn Publication Date: Fri, 01/07/2011 - 09:00 Walker Books has launched an award for new illustration to help mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the company's founder, Sebastian Walker. The Sebastian Walker Award will be run in collaboration with the MA course in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 16/06/2011 - 15:44 Publishers are vying to be the champions as they bring out titles to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the death of Queen star Freddie Mercury in November 2011. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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