I was surprised to walk into my local Costco on Saturday, 7/8, to see the
new Harry Potter book, selling for about $14. I had to check the copyright
date (2000) to make sure I wasn't imagining it.
Cary Marshall
[log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denys Beauchemin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2000 8:14 PM
Subject: Re: e-commerce in hype-rdrive
> I suggest the following URL. This is an editorial by one of my favorite
> scribes, George Will.
>
> It tells a little about the story of the author of the Harry Potter books.
>
> http://www.sacbee.com/voices/national/will/will_20000705.html
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Denys. . .
>
> Denys Beauchemin
> HICOMP
> (800) 323-8863 (281) 288-7438 Fax: (281) 355-6879
> denys at hicomp.com www.hicomp.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wirt Atmar [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2000 4:41 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: e-commerce in hype-rdrive
>
> I continue to amazed by the effects of the internet and the new
information
> economy. Last night, the newest Harry Potter book was shipped from
Amazon.com
> for Saturday delivery. The following snippet is from a Reuters newservice
> wire posting. What they didn't mention in this particular story is that
> Amazon had 344,000 pre-orders for Saturday delivery, most of which were
> required to be hand-gift-wrapped. To service that demand, Amazon
pre-arranged
> with FedEx to have 100 FedEx aircraft standing by overnight to ship the
53.3
> tons of books to essentially every town in the United States.
>
> You wouldn't think that a non-wartime, civilian economy could muster these
> kinds of resources, especially for a single, relatively trivial event, and
in
> cooperation with a company so young that it celebrates only its fifth
> birthday this week.
>
> If you have the time, take a look at Amazon's bestsellers list:
>
>
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/lists/best/amazon-bestsellers.html/
>
> Six of the top seven books are Harry Potter books -- and the sixth is only
in
> seventh position because it hasn't been published yet.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
>
> =======================================
>
> "There's been considerable news coverage on this, and they needed to make
> sure they had a reliable delivery service -- it's as bad to get it there
late
> as it is to get it there early," said Dottie Berry, executive vice
president
> for integrated technology at FedEx.
>
> That's meant staging something on the scale of a military operation, with
> temporary phone lines, technical advisers at all Amazon distribution
centers
> around the country and remote support services from FedEx's Memphis,
> Tennessee, headquarters.
>
> "Logistical plans for something this large are very difficult to execute,"
> said Lyn Blake, who headed Amazon's effort.
>
> "Precision is the key word here," said Berry.
>
> Amazon and FedEx have worked for several months on an expanded home
delivery
> service, and this "is a chance to show off our new product," Berry said.
> FedEx began receiving copies of the 752-page book on Wednesday.
>
> For Amazon, which has vowed to be the No. 1 seller of the book, it's a
chance
> to get a piece of the incredible worldwide publicity the Potter books have
> generated.
>
> But it may be hard to stand out in the hype.
>
> "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is being published simultaneously in
> the United States and Britain and already has set a record for U.S. first
> printings of 3.8 million copies. The first three books in the series of
> adventures of aspiring wizard Harry Potter have sold 30 million copies.
> Potter books have spent about 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller
> list, and a Potter film is in the works.
>
> =========================================
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