There was a time, technically in the last millennium, that people were deprived of Amazon. In the late 1990s Wal-Mart was at the top of its game and Jeff Bezos was not even a blip on the radar. However, nobody knew that Bezos was coming up with an idea that would become bigger than Wal-Mart and would lead to him becoming one of the richest men in the world.

In 1994 Bezos was working in a well-paying hedge fund in NYC, which he left once he started developing the idea of Amazon. He traveled from NYC to Seattle and continued working on his revolutionary idea in his garage, which worked out for Steve Jobs. During that time the United States Supreme Court ruled that mail-order companies which lack a physical presence, such as not having an actual store where customers can walk in and buy items, are exempt from paying sales tax. This meant huge profits for Amazon.

Fast-forward to 2017 and Amazon is the number one internet-based retailer in market capitalization and total sales, making 135.98 billion dollars in 2016 alone and possessing a stock price of $969.38 a share (as of September 21, 2017). They have multiple divisions, such as: Prime Now, Amazon Fresh and Prime Pantry, though this only scrapes the surface. In August, Amazon acquired the massive grocery store chain Whole Foods for a relatively reasonable price of $13.4 billion. It was just a matter of days until they started selling Kindles in the checkout line.

Using Amazon for just about anything and everything is a common occurrence for most Americans.

“I use Amazon Prime for basically all of my hilites costumes because it comes in 3 days,” junior Charlotte Bond said. “I like it because it’s fast.”

With a diverse catalog of consumer electronics like the Kindle, Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV, it is pretty clear that the key to Amazon’s success is how convenient it is to buy their products.

People just simply don’t have the time to run to physical stores all the time, especially when they’re not sure whether or not they would even have the item you are looking for. Then, out of nowhere, Amazon comes with its cheaper prices, same-day delivery and their expansive catalog to convince you that they are indeed the best. With all of those factors weighing in, Bezos built a fortune out of a project that started in his garage.