John Wrainwright bought the first book on Amazon. The work is called "Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies" and was edited by Douglas Hofstadter. At that time, the academic Hofstadter, together with his students, explored topics related to artificial intelligence.
Wainwright, who was a friend of an Amazon developer, originally thought his friend would ask for a test from the Amazon site - and expected a free book. His credit card was charged however.
Amazon's first customer is a likeable nerd, an entertaining interview with him can be found on the US site MarketWatch, including image and original bill of his then shopping.
By the way, today an Amazon building is named after Wainwright.
2.Amazons first dog:
Rufus, a Corgi, was a legend for many years and also drew the attention of the customers, who overcrowed him with presents. Today more than 2000 dogs can be found at Amazon, as can be seen in the lobby of every Amazon building. More about Rufus , who unfortunately died peacefully in May 2009, visit Amazon.
In honor of the first four-legged was called a building called Rufus, the new ambitious construction project "The Spheres" runs internally at the Amazon under the name "Rufus II".
3.Amazons first dinosaur skeleton:
To the more odd things that were sold at Amazon is a dinosaur skeleton, which is now found in the foyer of the building "Van Vorst". The bony companion comes from an auction on Amazons meanwhile set auction platform in the Amazon-Marketplace.
4. Amazons first desks:
With the Amazon myth belong the famous desks of doors. Still in the very early initial phase, when offices and warehouse were still in a spot, this first desk was created. This first desk, which was reportedly standing for a long time in Jeff Bezo's office, and perhaps still stands, was followed by others of these uncomfortable constructions: massive wooden doors with poles in every corner, fastened with metal fittings.
The core statement, which developed into the myth: At Amazon is spent on nothing unnecessary money. In the aftermath some of these desks, which were still to be found for a long time at Amazon.
The myth of wood desks is by journalist Glenn Fleishman of Seattle in an interesting blog post picked apart: Actually cheap desks would have been much better and cheaper. Amazon has kept the myth for marketing reasons, however, carefully for a long time.
Fleishman worked in the growth phase for Amazon and is a personal acquaintance of Bezos.
5. Amazons first horticultural artist:
Amazon's spectacular new building "The Spheres" consists of three gigantic steel and glass domes in the middle of Seattle. The city, which is surrounded by national parks and nature, gets a great biosphere into the city center. In addition to offices, a waterfall and a river, the building also has its own full-time gardening artist who will plant and cultivate thousands of plants in the greenhouse landscape of the building with his team. More in the Seattle Times .