Amazon is a fortune 500 company. It is an American electronic commerce company which is located in Seattle, Washington. It is now Americas largest online retailer, with nearly 3 times the internet sale of second place Staples incorporation. Amazon was founded in 1994, by Jeffrey Bezos, and was officially launched online in 1995. This site is considered the pioneer of online retailing and offers many products that a lot of sites don’t offer. The selection that they offer are books, Cd’s, videos, DVD’s, electronic toys, home furnishing, and many different selling gadgets that you could think of. They also sell many items through 3rd party retailers. Some of these retailers include, Toys R Us, Target, Circuit City, etc. Amazon has also established many different websites globally around the world. Some countries include Germany, France, China, Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom. The Company began as an online bookstore which was named “Cadabra.com”. This was quickly removed because it sounded like “cadaver”. Bezos then renamed the company “amazon.com”, after the biggest river in the world. Amazons logotype is an arrow that leads from A to Z that represents the customer satisfaction being great and a goal to have every product that they sell in the alphabet. In 1994, Bezos left his job as a vice president of a top Wall Street firm and moved to Seattle to work out a business plan to start Amazon.com. The reason he chose to make the headquarters in Seattle was because it has a large hi-tech work force and its proximity to a large book distribution in Oregon. He made several list of what he could sell on his site and then narrowed it down to about 30 products. He felt that the 5 most promising items would be: compact discs, computer hardware, computer software, books, and videos. The web sited debuted in July of 1995, and was quickly rated the number 1 book site on the web. The company offered a good discount on most book titles, which made it affordable for the buyers. In May of 1997, Amazon went public. It was the first internet retailer to reach one million customers. With customers in all 50 states and all around the globe, the company that started in a garage is now making 147.8 million a year in sales. In 1998, Amazon enters the online music and video business. It had around 125,000 music titles available. In 1999, bezos expands the firm into selling, toys, electronics, tools, and hardware. Also Bezos was named by Time magazine “Persons of the Year”. In 2001 sales grew to about 3.12 billion. During the fourth quarter it got to its highest peak at 5 million in profit. In 2002, the company launched an apparel store, which included clothing from many top brand companies. Amazon is growing and launching new items everyday and having more customers come to their website. Amazon.com employees should always act lawfully, ethically, and in the best interests of Amazon.com. This Code of Business Conduct and Ethics sets out basic guiding principles. Employees who are unsure whether their conduct or the conduct of their coworkers complies with the Code of Conduct should contact their manager or the Legal Department. Employees may also report any suspected noncompliance as provided in the Legal Department's reporting guidelines.
