Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as fast as he could. Bezos’ early life experience in Texas may weigh in…
Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wasn’t born in Texas, but he got here as fast as he could.
Bezos’ early life experience in Texas may weigh in as Amazon said Thursday that it’s commenced a search for a second headquarters, promising to spend more than $5 billion on whatever site it chooses in North America.
Bezos said Thursday that the new headquarters will be « a full equal » to its Seattle counterpart with as many as 50,000 jobs.
Amazon just purchased Austin-based Whole Foods Market. And there’s no better state in which to learn how to compete against Wal-Mart, the largest U. S. grocer, and San Antonio-based H-E-B, considered a top regional grocer in the supermarket business.
Bezos’ own Blue Origin suborbital launch facility is located in West Texas, near the town of Van Horn.
Amazon is building its ninth fulfillment center in Texas. It’s the online retailer’s third in Coppell. Amazon’s other North Texas fulfillment centers are in Dallas, Fort Worth and Haslet. Others are in Schertz (near San Antonio) and San Marcos. The first one in Houston is under construction.
Bezos spent 10 hot summers on his grandfather’s cattle ranch in Cotulla, Texas, and his cousin is country singer George Strait.
Bezos was born in Albuquerque, N. M., but his family moved to Houston when he was a toddler. His father was a petroleum engineer for Exxon.
Here’s an excerpt about Bezos’ early life from a 1999 article by Dallas Morning News staff writer Michael Granberry:
In Houston, Jeff advanced from kindergarten to the Vanguard
magnet program at River Oaks Elementary School. As a fourth-grader,
he figured out what none of his teachers could: He signed on to a
primitive terminal, which, through a time-sharing process, was
attached to a main-frame computer downtown.
He taught his friends how to use it and spent hours after school
playing Star Trek, long before Nintendo or video games had crossed
the paths of American children.
He also built an Infinity Cube, which used a set of mirrors to
allow one to stare into « infinity. » The story of young Jeff and his
Infinity Cube is documented in Turning on Bright Minds: A Parent
Looks at Gifted Education in Texas, which was published in the
Houston area in 1977. Written by Julie Ray, the book follows
12-year-old Jeff (renamed Tim) through a typical day in school.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
