Costco's founder met Jeff Bezos for coffee—his advice helped turn a near-death Amazon into a $2 trillion business

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In 2001, tech stocks went bust and Amazon struggled. A coffee meeting with Costco founder Jim Sinegal helped convince Jeff Bezos to rethink his prices.

But back in 2001, its very survival was in doubt after the dot-com bubble burst and Amazon's stock dipped by 90 percent. Some critics📺 24/7 Chicago news stream: Watch NBC 5 free wherever you are

Sinegal explained how Costco could sell so many products for"dirt cheap" by eliminating unnecessary costs and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers to secure the best deals on bulk goods, Stone wrote. Those low prices were key to getting customers to pay for Costco's annual membership, comprising most of the company's gross profits.

Bezos has never publicly credited the meeting with Sinegal for inspiring any of Amazon's pricing strategies, but Stone wrote that Bezos called a meeting at Amazon just a few days after sitting down with Sinegal. The topic: Amazon's"incoherent" pricing strategy and the need to deliver on the company's promise to always have lower prices than its competitors, according to Stone, who interviewed Amazon executives who were present., in some cases.

 

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