a warehouse near Seattle airport and filled it in a way that robots could
maneuver easily.
In the early days, Amazon focused on books and hunters—people
on a mission, looking for a specific product. As the years passed,
broadband began to offer shades of nuance, and gatherers showed up,
willing to browse, weigh options, and take their time. Bezos knew he
could migrate to things people weren’t used to buying online yet, like
CDs and DVDs. Foreshadowing Amazon’s threat to all things good in
our society, Susan Boyle’s CD I Dreamed a Dream set sales records on
the platform.
To outrun competitors and reinforce the core value of selection,
Amazon introduced Amazon Marketplace, letting third parties fill in
the long tail. Sellers got access to the world’s largest e-commerce
platform and customer base, and Amazon was able to balloon its
offerings without the expense of additional inventory.
Amazon Marketplace now accounts for $40 billion, or 40 percent,
of Amazon’s sales.^31 Sellers, content with the massive customer flow,
feel no compulsion to invest in retail channels of their own.
Meanwhile, Amazon gets the data and can enter any business (begin
selling products themselves) the moment a category becomes
attractive. So, Amazon, should it choose, can begin offering directly
“Old Asian Man Wall Decals,” “Nicolas Cage Pillowcases,” and “55-
Gallon Drums of Lube.”
Amazon appeals to our hunter-gatherer instinct to collect more
stuff with minimum effort. We have serious mojo for stuff, as survival
went to the caveman who had the most twigs, had the right rocks to
crack stuff open with, and got the most colorful mud to draw images
on walls so his descendants knew when to plant crops, or what
dangerous animals to avoid.
The need for stuff is real: stuff keeps us warm and safe. It allows us
to store and prepare food. It helps us attract mates and care for our
offspring. And easy stuff is the best stuff, because it consumes less
energy and gives you time to do other important things.
Without capital-hungry stores, Bezos could invest in automated
warehouses. Scale is power, and Amazon was able to offer prices no
brick-and-mortar retailer could afford. He offered deals—to loyal
customers, to authors, to delivery companies, to resellers agreeing to