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Amazon’s 1994 launch offered “proof of concept” for e-commerce

Amazon opened as an online bookstore. But chief executive Jeff Bezos always wanted to sell more than books.

An Amazon company timeline starts with the founding in 1994 at the Amazon Fulfillment Center on August 1, 2017 in Robbinsville, New Jersey.
An Amazon company timeline starts with the founding in 1994 at the Amazon Fulfillment Center on August 1, 2017 in Robbinsville, New Jersey.
Mark Makela/Getty Images

Exactly 25 years ago today, a company called “Cadabra” (as in Abracadabra) incorporated in Washington State. A few months later it would change its name to Amazon. A quarter-century later, it’s the world’s largest retailer, worth almost a trillion dollars, with side businesses that stretch across industries, while thousands of brick-and-mortar stores have closed around the U.S.

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