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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dwight E. Karlsen who wrote (31185)	12/25/1998 8:36:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Respond to of 164684

By Martie Zad Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 20, 1998; Page Y05 Maybe you've had the experience: Every time you really wanted a special home video -- not the current super hit, but maybe an old sentimental favorite -- it was never available from any of the usual vendors. Online shopping has made the hunt for the elusive movie an easier problem to solve for the Internet-friendly shopper. Firms such as Reel.com have offered such service for some time, and now Amazon.com, the giant among Internet retailers, has added videos to its book and music offerings. Amazon offers more than 60,000 video titles. With just a few clicks of a mouse, you can place an order 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Amazon also offers 2,000 DVD titles. Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1995 and saw it quickly become the world's biggest bookstore. Bezos said online shoppers told Amazon.com that "buying videos is a painful shopping experience. Whether it's the lack of selection, the absence of helpful information or the high prices, it's just not fun. So we created a store that's deep in selection, rich in content and easy on the wallet." The prices are discounted up to 30 percent. For online shoppers' searches, video titles are divided into 12 genres and hundreds of sub-categories. There are also large selections under the headings special interest, television and documentaries. Reviews are available from critic Leonard Maltin, as well as quotes and trivia from the movie-savvy website IMDb (Internet Movie Database). Most orders are shipped within 24 hours after they're placed. Delivery times vary, with shipping charges ranging from a basic $3.95 to $10.95 for next-day air. With 60,000 titles for sale, Amazon.com by no means has a complete movie inventory. Resource information on the Internet covers 150,000 films. Some movies are not available on video, and there are many that, because of deterioration, are no longer available on film. To test Amazon's service, four titles were sought, including a current hit, a TV movie and two vintage films. "Dead End," made in 1937 from Lillian Hellman's script, starred Sylvia Sidney and Joel McCrea and featured a group of East Side roughies who went on to become the Dead End Kids and later the Bowery Boys. The video costs $12.99, $2 below list price, and would be shipped within two weeks. "Long Gone," an HBO baseball film made in 1987, starred William L. Peterson, Virginia Madsen and Dermot Mulroney. It costs $12.99, $2 below list, and is shipped in a day. The 1939 classic "Wizard of Oz" costs $12.99, $1.99 below list, and would take one to two weeks to be shipped. Finally, a biggie from last year, "As Good As It Gets" with Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt, would cost $19.99, $3 below list price. Shipping time: one day.