Over the weekend, the world learned the tragic news that former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh died in a house fire. He was 46.
Hsieh helped build the Zappos shoe empire into a billion-dollar business. He had recently retired from the company after being at the top spot for 20 years. A graduate of Harvard University, Hsieh joined the company when it was called ShoeSite.com and helped it become a shoe superpower. Zappos sold to Amazon for $1.9 billion in 2009.
Hsieh was also instrumental in rebuilding downtown Las Vegas, where he lived in an upscale trailer park with two pet alpacas named Marley and Triton. He invested $350 million to revitalize downtown, developing Container Park, which boats a fire-shooting praying mantis at its front entrance. Hsieh also created a trailer park called "Llamaoplis," a converted parking lot and home to 33 Tumbleweeds and an Airstream. This is where Hsieh lives with his hay-eating friends.
“Tony Hsieh played a pivotal role in helping transform Downtown Las Vegas,” tweeted Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. “Kathy and I send our love and condolences to Tony’s family and friends during this difficult time.”
After news of Hsieh's death broke, tributes poured out on social media.
Under Hsieh, Zappos has been known for its friendly and lenient customer service, including a return policy that gives customers 365 days to return their shoes (provided they're "like new").
“Buying shoes online can initially be a scary process for people,” Hsieh said in 2003. “But Zappos has withstood when other dot-coms have failed because we provide the best customer experience, such as free shipping both ways. Even though free shipping of both orders and returns has cost us more, it has enabled us to keep our customers longer.”
Here are some other words of wisdom from the shoe sage:
1. “There’s a big difference between motivation and inspiration: Inspire through values and motivation takes care of itself.”
2. “Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.”
3. “For individuals, character is destiny. For organizations, culture is destiny. ”
4. “Our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a great long-term brand or empowering passionate employees and customers will happen on its own.”
5. “Don’t be cocky. Don’t be flashy. There’s always someone better than you.”
6. “People may not remember exactly what you did or what you said but they always remember how you made them feel, that’s what matters the most.”
7. “If anyone’s ever interacted with an alpaca, you know you just can’t help but laugh.”
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
