Amazon and FedEx teamed up to deliver a quarter of a million copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to pre-order customers on the first day of release in July 2000. 100 FedEx flights and 9,000 delivery workers were mobilized to deliver the 752-page book, which won a Hugo Award and was adapted into a film and video game.
In what has become one of the largest sales and distribution events in the history of e-commerce, Amazon and FedEx have joined forces to bring a quarter of a million copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire into the hands of eager readers in July 2000. Amazon had promised that the first 250,000 Potter fans who pre-ordered JK Rowling’s latest book would receive their copy the first day the book was available to the public. To deliver such a large volume of books on Saturdays, 100 regularly scheduled FedEx flights, 9,000 FedEx delivery workers and vehicles from 700 stations were mobilized from Amazon.com’s fulfillment centers.
Harry Potter and the Fantastic Delivery:
At 752 pages, the fourth installment in the popular Potter series wouldn’t fit in a standard mail slot or mailbox. All told, FedEx delivered more than 188 million pages home that day.
Employees of FedEx Express, the company’s airline-connected service, worked successive shifts that day, some until 8 p.m., but FedEx said no additional staff was needed.
The fantasy novel won a Hugo Award and was made into a film, which was released worldwide in November 2005. It has also been adapted into a video game published by Electronic Arts.
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