Delivering Happiness

Galen’s Vegas Story
Five days prior to joining Zappos in San Francisco, I had officially
become a married man. It was an exciting time and I was ready for
the adventures life was about to bring. Or so I thought.
When I started work, HR told me Tony offered everybody a free
membership to the gym that was located a couple floors above
Zappos. So my daily routine consisted of showing up at the office

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around 6:00 or 7:00 
AM
, catching up on e-mail, then heading up to
the gym with Fred at about 8:00.
One day, we were on the elliptical machines and Fred started
barraging me with questions about Las Vegas. What’s the town like?
How are housing prices? He went on and on, but since he knew my
parents lived there, I didn’t think much of it.
A couple days later, Zappos announced they were moving the
entire company to Vegas. It had been ten days since I joined, and I
was faced with telling my wife of fifteen days we might have to
move.
I was ready for adventure, but I didn’t think it would come quite
that quickly.
It was a bit of a wrench, but because of my parents, I knew Vegas
wasn’t just about gambling, the Strip, and strip clubs. After some
deliberation, I could see us making the move and, thank God, my
wife said yes.
Aki’s Vegas Story
I’ve always been really fond of San Francisco and I love the Bay
Area. So when we initially heard about the relocation to Las Vegas, it
was hard. I think all of us were wrestling with the idea of leaving our
friends and family behind, and thinking to ourselves, Seriously, we’re
moving?
But the company wasn’t comprised of four or five people, or
even ten or twenty. There were ninety of us, and we had already
developed tight relationships and friendships by working (and
playing) together.
I realized there was something unique about Zappos when I
looked around and saw that all of my friends happened to be my co-
workers too. So I decided to do it. And although very few of us had
friends or relatives living in Vegas, once we moved, the family unit
that we developed in San Francisco meant we all had automatic
friends and family upon arrival.

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Looking back, I remember thinking that it was really hard for all
of us. But over the years, we’ve been able to develop new roots, and
here we are, still together.