(WYTV) — When founder Jeff Bezos quit his Wall Street hedge fund job in 1995 and started the company out of his garage, it was just a simple bookstore.
He had no books in his garage. When he got an order, he would find the book, buy it, and re-sell it at a profit. Barnes & Noble operates nearly 600 stores in all 50 states, but Amazon outsells them — it is now the largest bookstore on planet Earth.
Bezos first wanted to call the company “Cadabra” until his lawyer said no, saying it sounded too much like “cadaver.” So why “Amazon?”
Bezos said he wanted his company to become the largest river of books in the world, and it helped that the letter “A,” put it near the top of alphabetical search engines.
He had a third choice: Relentless.com. Type it in and it will take you to Amazon.
Amazon is the second-largest private employer in the nation, behind Walmart, but its website is the most visited when it comes to e-commerce.
Things that you cannot buy on Amazon: full-size homes, any meat that comes from China, tobacco, fireworks and live animals. Amazon does not ship to Iran, Cuba, Sudan, North Korea or Syria.
The Amazon fulfillment center in Phoenix, Arizona, occupies one million, 200 thousand square feet — equal to 28 football fields.
The most popular products on Amazon are electronics.
