When Queen Elizabeth signed the treaty that formed the first corporation back in the 15th century, she probably didn't figure on a company with a location that doesn't exist gobbling up mass quantities of commerce like a fat Elvis with a bagful of amphetamines. Amazon.com, "the world's most customer-centric company," has gone from a garage-run operation to a worldwide provider of books, videos, dvd's, cd's, LP's, cassettes, video and computer games, cameras, Supersoakers, Micro Machines, Star Wars figures and other random toys, batteries to go with them and garden houses for housewives and garden gloves to keep their hands dry. Like a child overloaded on growth hormone, Amazon.com's transformation took a mere five years. Now, with five huge distribution centers in the United States and more coming in Japan and England, a corporate partnership with toy giant Toys 'R Us and links like petstore.com, Amazon still fails to turn a profit. Maybe this is CEO Jeff Bezos' idea of staying DIY and blame it all on expansion, but what it really masks is a just another fragile e-business structure. Since their east coast DC is located in New Castle, Delaware, a mere seven miles from my hometown of Newark, it seemed a logical place to cash in on the burst of business while it lasted. My first tour of Amazon began in the Spring of '99. It was a good season, i remember the weather being uncommonly pleasant for a coast with the temperament of a spoiled little girl. Blue skies, soft breezes, cute college girlies and zombie like stares in the Amazon shuttle specially charged with the task of whisking University of Delaware students to a warehouse somewhat the size of about a thousand football fields or like the storage facility at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

I had been warned by my friends though. I heard the horror stories, the cultish references, friends pulled in like Moonies hardly to be seen again, and when they were they always had the thousand yard stare and talked about how enjoyable 60 hour weeks were and how coming in on your off days would really help with the complexion. I ignored the foreboding. I thought myself more resilient to subversive corporate undertow, although I did suggest we make an Amazon theme song to the tune of Van Halen's "Panama" and loop it around and play it all day long. My genius went unnoticed and I mindlessly packed the endless stream of books at the conveyor belt, throwing them onto the metal rollers and refusing to initial the package so that boxes I messed up could never be traced back to me. Once I let the package down the line, it was like water under the bridge. I made my cash and took off to California. Upon my return to Delaware, I went back to the National 5&10 for the menial sum of $5.15 an hour. Unfortunately for me, minimum wage in Delaware had been changed to $5.65 while I was away. So for several months I toiled away for FOB wages, always noting that It Was Better Than Amazon. When spring rolled around again, with it came the urge to make yet another excursion to the west coast and to make another deal with the Bezos Family.

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