It's hard to imagine not being able to buy a pair of shoes online. It's even harder to imagine not owning a pair of shoes at all. The founders and employees at Zappos (an Amazon company) are familiar with both situations. Co-founder and CEO Tony Hsieh got Zappos off the ground in 1999 when he and other investors realized that nowhere on the Internet could consumers find a real selection of shoes. You know how successful Zappos has become since then, despite subsequent competition- but you might not be aware of the company's efforts to give back to its community, including giving shoes away to children in need.
Zappos engages in social responsibility initiatives because "we feel that it's the right thing to do," explains Shannon Roy, the company's Happiness Hippie (her job title). The company develops relationships with charitable organizations that are similar to those it builds with customers and vendors, looking for ways that employees can interact directly with the community through these organizations. Some of the broad areas in which Zappos offers assistance are poverty and education, cancer research and care, and pets and nature. Specific efforts include partnerships with charitable organizations, such as Goodie Two Shoes, a foundation that provides new shoes and socks to children in crisis or need. Through its Goodie Two Shoes Giveaway each year, the organization teams up with
Zappos and other firms are to donate and distribute thousands of footwear products to children who need them. "It's giving back to the community," says Roy, who adds that Zappos employees feel driven to participate. "It's part of our being, part of our culture; it's very inherent in what Zappos is all about."
Working at Zappos is "grander than the 9 to 5 job. It's doing something for the greater good." It would be easy for an online retailer such as Zappos to set up shop anywhere and ignore its surroundings. But that's not Zappos. Instead, the firm made a deal to renovate the vacant Las Vegas City Hall for $40 million, bringing about 2,000 employees to downtown Las Vegas-an area that could use an economic and social boost. CEO Hsieh admits that originally he thought about building a "dream corporate campus," much like those of Apple, Google, and Nike. But when the Las Vegas opportunity came along, Hsieh and other Zappos managers thought: "Let's not be like the other companies. Let's not be insular and only care about our employees. We want to help contribute and help build a community and really integrate into a community around our campus." City officials predicted that the economic impact to the downtown area could top $336 million, bolstering real estate, health care, restaurants and hotels, retailers, and other businesses. "I think this is part of what our brand is about," observes Matt Burchard, senior director of marketing, photo, and video. "We've added a core tenet of what we stand for, and that's community."
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