The Trouble With Amazon
Bezos
Independent news is more important than ever . Sign up for The Nation Daily and get our hard - hitting journalism in your inbox every weekday . Sign up for The Nation Daily and get our hard - hitting journalism in your inbox every weekday . Thank you for signing up . For more from The Nation   check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $ 2 a month ! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported : Chip in $ 10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter . The Nation is reader supported : Chip in $ 10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter . Sign up for Take Action Now and we ’ ll send you three meaningful actions you can each week . Sign up for Take Action Now and we ’ ll send you three meaningful actions you can each week . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations   and explore the world with kindred spirits . Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations   and explore the world with kindred spirits . Sign up for our Wine Club today . Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine ? In a speech in May to graduates at his alma mater   Princeton University   he recounted a childhood memory : when   driving with his grandmother   a heavy smoker   he calculated by how many years her addiction would reduce her life expectancy . Announcing the result from the back seat   he expected praise for his deft math . But his grandmother just burst into tears . Ad Policy The Amazon founder ’ s geeky obsession with numbers evidently formed early   and despite the glimmer of discomfort revealed by his Princeton anecdote   his fervently quantitative take on the world clearly still predominates . In a letter accompanying the 2009 Amazon annual report   for instance   he sets out a mind - boggling 452 goals for the company in the coming year . The word " revenue " is mentioned only eight times   yet revenue growth is central to the Amazon story . Expanding both internationally and across other products — nonbook sales represent 75 percent of total Amazon turnover — Amazon ’ s global business has increased fifteenfold over the past decade   28 percent last year alone . Sales in 2009 topped $ 24 . 5 billion . To put that in perspective   in 2008 total sales by all US bookstores were less than $ 17 billion . Amazon is today   by some margin   the largest bookseller in the world . Related Article Commentary : Colin Robinson on Amazon ’ s Bad Business The Nation on Grit TV Of all the goals in the report   Bezos proudly points out   no fewer than 360 deal directly with customer needs . The customer has always been king in the Bezos ethos   and the formula for keeping the king happy is straightforward . " Amazon gives the customers what they want : low prices   vast selection and extreme convenience  " he told a shareholders ’ meeting . On these terms   Amazon ’ s success is stellar . It has more than 2 million titles on sale ; bestselling books are routinely discounted by 50 percent or more ; and it ranked first in BusinessWeek ‘ s " customer service champs " awards last year . But dig beneath the surface of the numbers and a more complex picture emerges   one suggesting that   stats notwithstanding   readers and writers may ultimately not be best served by Amazon ’ s race to become the biggest   cheapest and most convenient bookseller around . Amazon has not grown to where it is today by being touchy - feely . Sure   it adopted the informal trappings that characterized many of the new technology start - ups of the 1990s . But if  Bezos ’ s  first desk at  the company  was an old door on trestles   the business conducted from behind it has been as ruthless as anything  he  encountered in  his  previous gig as a Wall Street broker . Soon after Amazon ’ s launch in 1995    Bezos  told  his  employees that  he  wanted a place that was both " intense and friendly " but that " if you ever had to give up ‘ friendly ’ in order to have ‘ intense  ’ we would do that ."
Independent news is more important than ever . Sign up for The Nation Daily and get our hard - hitting journalism in your inbox every weekday . Sign up for The Nation Daily and get our hard - hitting journalism in your inbox every weekday . Thank you for signing up . For more from The Nation   check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $ 2 a month ! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported : Chip in $ 10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter . The Nation is reader supported : Chip in $ 10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter . Sign up for Take Action Now and we ’ ll send you three meaningful actions you can each week . Sign up for Take Action Now and we ’ ll send you three meaningful actions you can each week . Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations   and explore the world with kindred spirits . Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations   and explore the world with kindred spirits . Sign up for our Wine Club today . Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine ? In a speech in May to graduates at his alma mater   Princeton University   he recounted a childhood memory : when   driving with his grandmother   a heavy smoker   he calculated by how many years her addiction would reduce her life expectancy . Announcing the result from the back seat   he expected praise for his deft math . But his grandmother just burst into tears . Ad Policy The Amazon founder ’ s geeky obsession with numbers evidently formed early   and despite the glimmer of discomfort revealed by his Princeton anecdote   his fervently quantitative take on the world clearly still predominates . In a letter accompanying the 2009 Amazon annual report   for instance   he sets out a mind - boggling 452 goals for the company in the coming year . The word " revenue " is mentioned only eight times   yet revenue growth is central to the Amazon story . Expanding both internationally and across other products — nonbook sales represent 75 percent of total Amazon turnover — Amazon ’ s global business has increased fifteenfold over the past decade   28 percent last year alone . Sales in 2009 topped $ 24 . 5 billion . To put that in perspective   in 2008 total sales by all US bookstores were less than $ 17 billion . Amazon is today   by some margin   the largest bookseller in the world . Related Article Commentary : Colin Robinson on Amazon ’ s Bad Business The Nation on Grit TV Of all the goals in the report   Bezos proudly points out   no fewer than 360 deal directly with customer needs . The customer has always been king in the Bezos ethos   and the formula for keeping the king happy is straightforward . " Amazon gives the customers what they want : low prices   vast selection and extreme convenience  " he told a shareholders ’ meeting . On these terms   Amazon ’ s success is stellar . It has more than 2 million titles on sale ; bestselling books are routinely discounted by 50 percent or more ; and it ranked first in BusinessWeek ‘ s " customer service champs " awards last year . But dig beneath the surface of the numbers and a more complex picture emerges   one suggesting that   stats notwithstanding   readers and writers may ultimately not be best served by Amazon ’ s race to become the biggest   cheapest and most convenient bookseller around . Amazon has not grown to where it is today by being touchy - feely . Sure   it adopted the informal trappings that characterized many of the new technology start - ups of the 1990s . But if [TGT]first desk at  the company  was an old door on trestles   the business conducted from behind it has been as ruthless as anything  he  encountered in  his  previous gig as a Wall Street broker . Soon after Amazon ’ s launch in 1995    [TGT]told  his  employees that  he  wanted a place that was both " intense and friendly " but that " if you ever had to give up ‘ friendly ’ in order to have ‘ intense  ’ we would do that ."