Word: line
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There was a time when Bezos could say, "If I had a nickel for every time a potential investor told me this wouldn't work..." and then lapse off into head shaking. Now he follows that line with a wild, giggly laugh. No wonder: as of last week, Bezos had 200 billion nickels. A rich reward, to be sure, but how on earth can you compensate a man who can see the future? Perhaps by inaugurating him into that club of men and women selected for having had, "for better or worse," the biggest impact in a given year. Welcome...
...looking for new areas of expansion. It's possible to argue that Bezos didn't master much more than an evolution of commerce, replacing old-fashioned stores with a centralized sales and shipping center. But even that one change, he notes, grabbing a favorite word, is "huge." For old-line businesses like K Mart, getting new customers meant building new stores at a cost of millions. For Bezos, serving new customers costs next to nothing...
...button down. Also khakis. You get the feeling that if he wore a tie (he doesn't), it would fly behind him like the parachute behind a dragster. Even now, as he's supposedly being led on a tour of the warehouse, he's at the front of the line, sailing down a narrow corridor that doglegs and decants into a huge room...
...stuff," says Robert Thompson, president of the Popular Culture Association and a Syracuse University professor who specializes in the study of collectibles. In a democracy, with everyone theoretically equal, people want to be different. We don't have a caste system; we've never had a blood-line aristocracy. We've distinguished ourselves by our cars, by the clothes we wear, by the stuff we buy and sell. "I suppose you can lament all the consumerist tendencies in this, the materialism," say Thompson. "But it gives so much joy to so many people. It's an innocent way of providing...
...makers were actually reasonably happy with this deal," says Alexander. "They can share the burden of expense and responsibility with the refiners." The automakers' joy is inconsequential, of course, when compared with the joy of sedan drivers everywhere: At last, owners of SUVs will be brought into line with everyone else. Now if only they could be made safe enough not to crush poor little Hyundais...