On July 5, 1994 Jeff Bezos incorporated the name Cadabra, Inc. as a company in the state of Washington, only to change it a few months later after its name was misheard as "cadaver."
By ALEX WINSTONAmazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery [File](photo credit: REUTERS)
When a man leaves his well-paid, high-end job as vice-president of a Wall Street investment management firm and moves all the way to Seattle, his friends could probably be forgiven for thinking some form of life-crisis is occuring.However, when Jeff Bezos made the move, it was with the intention of setting up a business that could infiltrate the "dot-com boom" of the mid-90s. On July 5, 1994 Jeff Bezos incorporated the name "Cadabra, Inc." as a company in the state of Washington, only to change it a few months later after its name was misheard as "cadaver." And so, Amazon was born.In its early days, the company was operated out of the garage of Bezos's house in Bellevue, Washington and focused on selling books online. The first book sold on Amazon.com was Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter.Amazon survived the crash of the Internet business boom at the beginning of the century that saw many online companies flounder, and eventually expanded to sell electronics, furniture, clothes, food, toys and jewelry, all elements that have added to Bezos's successful business model. As the internet became more widespread and accessible, the company saw phenomenal growth in the first decade of the 21st century, and since then has released several of its own products and services: the Kindle, Amazon Fire, Amazon Echo feat, Alexa, Amazon Prime, Fresh, and Amazon Music.In 2018, the first Amazon Go store was opened in Seattle, with no cashiers and no self-service checkout. All via a mobile application, customers are able to pick what they desire off the shelves, and simply walk out, revolutionizing the notion of customers and service. In 2019, 25 years after its founding, Amazon is set to launch its long-awaited Hebrew website and make a move into the Israeli market using Israeli retailers and businesses.