On Tuesday, July 26th 2005 Amazon.com inspired the e-commerce world of investors, third-party merchants, online publishers and dedicated customers to take notice. Amazon's management led by CEO, Jeff Bezos and CFO, Tom Szkutak presented the Company's quarterly report. During the call, the Seattle-based online global e-tailer announced record free cash flow fueled by lower prices and free shipping for customers.

The web cast of their Q2 2005 financial results can be found at:

Rugged Elegance recommends to its American audience that you become a member of Amazon Prime, Amazon.com's "All You Can Eat" Express Shipping Membership for a flat annual fee of $79.

Having become a member when the service was first introduced in January, we believe!

In fact, this is a case where we were personally inspired, and now we want to inspire the Rugged Elegance community. At least those of you in the U.S.

For the record, this story goes in the "smarter living" category.

Amazon touts:

Unlimited Express Shipping

* Free Two-Day Shipping on over a million in-stock items sold by Amazon.com
* Overnight Shipping for only $3.99 per item -- order as late as 6:30pm ET
* Ship to any eligible address in the contiguous United States

Effortless Shopping

* No minimum purchase required
* No need to consolidate items to save on shipping
* Convenient Sharing
* Share the benefits of your Amazon Prime membership with up to four family members living in the same household

For the 600,000 unique visitors around the globe who visit Rugged Elegant Living each month, when you see a link within a story, or when you click "more" to go to the second page of an article and see 1-5 related products in between these stories, these products have been hand-picked by Rugged Elegance.

If you choose to buy one or more of our related products, when you click on that product you are led into The Rugged Elegance World Marketplace. When you purchase this or any other product at that time, you will ultimately be led to check out through Amazon.

If your product is one that Amazon ships directly, as opposed to the thousands of products fulfilled through their third-party merchants, you have the opportunity to have that product shipped for $3.99 overnight or for free.

On Tuesday, Amazon's top management held a conference call with Wall Street analysts that reinforces the significance of their Amazon Prime service.

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos said during the call:

Amazon Prime members love getting unlimited two-day shipping for free with no minimum order size.

Though expensive for the company, Amazon Prime creates a premium experience for customers who join, and as a result we hope they'll purchase more from us in the long term.

We suspect Amazon Prime is not well understood in the marketplace. If it was, every Amazon customer living in America would become an "Amazon Prime" member.

Rugged Elegance, one of Amazon.com's 900,000 affiliates, thinks it is an incredible value. We also think it changes the way online commerce is thought of for any and all consumers with a computer and an Internet connection.

First, let's step back and look at what Amazon Prime is.

This morning, as I headed for my PowerBook laptop to get started on today's "inspirational" post, Tim stopped me dead in my tracks. "Stop whatever you're doing," he said. As he handed me my morning cup of SpecialTea he exclaimed, "Come here and watch this. On yesterday's Oprah Winfrey show, she surprised 300 teachers and gave away nearly twenty of her 'Favorite Things' to each and every one of them."

While this was Oprah's eighth annual "Favorite Things" gift giving show, this was our first time watching it. As I sat in amazement I turned to Tim and asked, "Are you crying?" He responded, "Yes. I cried last night after seeing it on the news. And I've got tears in my eyes again now."

Last night, after Monday Night Football, a clip of Oprah Winfrey's show appeared on the local channel.

"Thank God for TiVo," Tim said.

After setting up a season pass for Oprah's program, he was able to click right from the news to watch her annual gift-giving show which easily rivaled her car give-away earlier this season. This morning, as a result, he was able to indulge me in the feel-good Santa Claus moment.

The audience full of teachers came to Harpo studio thinking they were there to talk about education. The second Oprah welcomed the crowd to her "Favorite Things" show, the teachers started screaming as if they were at a rock concert.

Unaware of what it all meant, I sat with my jaw open and tears streaming down my face as though I was watching my children scream with delight upon the realization that Santa had come to our home.

I didn't know what was happening, but the very moment Oprah announced it's was "t.v.'s hottest ticket" the teachers sure seemed to know.

After the mayhem of the announcement, Oprah kiddingly said to the crowd, "O.K. class, let's settle down."

No group of people were more deserving of the phenomental gifts Oprah was about to bestow upon them. Oprah would agree.

"Because we knew were doing this for teachers, we just went crazy," Oprah said.

The queen of daytime TV had always wanted to go into the teaching profession. She calls it the most honorable job on the planet. She said, "If I didn't do this job, I would a be a teacher. I love teachers. I think they are the true leaders of the world."

However, in reality, as significant the role is inspiring our future generations, it is sadly one of the most underpaid and overworked jobs in our country.

For 300 dedicated souls, some who spend as much as 40% of their salary buying supplies and tickets to sporting events to motivate their kids, the moment of receiving yesterday was almost as good as their giving. In fact on this day, I'm sure they'll admit it was even better.

Kelly Shea, a kindergarten teacher at St. Andrew's School in Chicago, said she spends about $500 per year for things for her students and classroom.

The lucky teachers invited to the show were asked to show their teaching certificates and a copy of their pay stubs before being invited into the studio on Saturday, the day the show was taped. In return, they were the recipients of thousands of dollars worth of top-of-the-line merchandize from Dell, Williams-Sonoma, Movado, Dooney & Bourke and $500 worth of supplies from OfficeMax.

"You give, and give, and give, and that is why I wanted to give you the hottest ticket in television," Oprah said as she began to show off her choice items of the year.

Karen Lechner works at Marin Country Day Shool and was invited to see the show after filling out a form on Oprah's Web site. She said, "All this stuff starts coming down from the ceiling and from behind this and that and it just, we just all exploded."

I told my husband, "Oprah has made your job easy this year. She's just done all of your Christmas shopping for me and the women in your life."

Playing Santa, here is the entire list of gifts Oprah bestowed upon the teachers, as well as the "Rugged Elegance" favorites from Oprah's 2004 Favorite Things.