SEATTLE -- October 15, 1999 -- Leading online retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) will open a second U.S.-based customer-service center early December in Tacoma, Wash.
The new customer-service center is in response to Amazon.com's growing global customer base.
"The Tacoma customer-service center will ensure that the growing number of Amazon.com customers continue to receive swift and efficient customer-service throughout the 1999 holiday shopping season and beyond," said Bill Price, Amazon.com's vice president of customer-service. "With the addition of the Tacoma customer-service center to our existing Seattle center, we continue to expand our customer-service team and build on our goal to be the most customer-centric company on earth."
The Tacoma facility is the first customer-service center to be opened outside of the company's Seattle headquarters and is expected to be fully operational by early December. "Tacoma was a logical choice for us, and not just from an employment standpoint. It was also a very attractive market in light of the priority the city has given to economic development and attracting high-tech companies," Price added.
The company currently operates a customer-service center in Seattle. Additional customer-service representatives to serve Amazon.com Auctions and zShops customers are also being sought to staff the Seattle facility.
Tacoma Open House
Amazon.com will have recruiters at the Landmark Convention Center and Temple Theater in Tacoma for an open house on Friday, October 22, and Saturday, October 23, to receive applications. The hours of the open house are as follows: Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The company is accepting résumés and will be conducting on-site interviews for temporary and full-time customer-service positions.
Seattle Open House
Amazon.com will have recruiters at the Pac-Med Building in Seattle for an open house on Friday, October 29, and Saturday, October 30, to receive applications. The hours of the open house are as follows: Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The company is accepting résumés for temporary and full-time customer-service positions for its Auctions and zShops customer base. In celebration of Halloween, Amazon.com will also host a costume contest and give away prizes during the open house's hours of operation.
About Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), and its subsidiaries ("Amazon.com") are the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video, and No. 1 book retailer. Amazon.com opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection with online auctions, toys, electronics, free electronic greeting cards, and more than 4.7 million book, music-CD, video, DVD, and computer-game titles. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where people can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. As part of its efforts to provide the best shopping experience for customers, Amazon.com provides secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, streamlined ordering through 1-Click technology, and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-Click.
Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present. Amazon.com also operates LiveBid.com (www.livebid.com), the sole provider of live-event auctions on the Internet.
In addition, Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information and services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in Seattle; Portland, OR.; and Orange County, CA at www.homegrocer.com; and Gear.com, which offers brand-name sporting goods at prices from 20 to 90 percent off retail, at www.gear.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction services, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 1999 and June 30, 1999.