CheckMate

It’s still early to be talking about what kind of holiday season retailers had this year, but here’s one big number that’s already in - Amazon just announced its 14th record holiday season with the biggest sales ever.

Here’s the key data from “At Least Amazon Had A Good Christmas” at Techcrunch today - take a good look at these numbers:

Peak items ordered on a single day

2008: 6.3M
2007: 5.4M
2006: 4.0M
2005: 3.6M
2004: 3.6M

Items ordered per second

2008: 72.9
2007: 62.5
2006: 46.3
2005: 41
2004: 32

Peak items shipped on a single day

2008: 5.6M
2007: 3.9M
2006: 3.4M
2005: 2.7M
2004: 2M+

You can read even more details in the official news release “Amazon.com’s 14th Holiday Season Is Best Ever”.

You already likely know where I’m going with this one, too - even in the middle of the current downturn with daily stories about one more problem or failure, money is still being spent and still being made.

I want to congratulate my dear friend and co-founder of this firm, Dr. Chris Howard, on his selection as the new president of Hampden-Sydney College:

I can’t possibly tell you just how proud and excited all of us who know Chris are about his selection for this position.

You may have already heard about this story - it really speaks for itself and needs no comment from me.

Well, other than to say it’s nice to know there are still some stand-up people and companies who “walk the talk” and will do the right thing:

“Five-figure bonuses stun Chicago plant workers”