Forget the bronze shield and armor, the people that rule modern empires wear neatly pressed suits and expensive shoes. One of the most prominent empires today have to do with business empires. Certain companies control most of their respective industries and have incredible influence and power, just like ancient empires such as Rome.
One modern example of empire is the business empire of Amazon. Amazon is an incredible company and has almost as interesting as a backstory of its founding as The Aeneid. Amazon was started off by Jeff Bezos in his garage located in Bellevue, Washington in 1994, having left an executive position at a Wall Street firm. This company originally started by selling books and has recently surpassed Wal-Mart as the most valuable retailer in the US and is the largest e-commerce company by revenue in the world. Amazon also dabbles in other business functions, such as being the world’s largest provider of cloud infrastructure services and has a separate brand themselves, called AmazonBasics. Amazon also produces consumer electronics, using proprietary technology, such as the Kindle e-readers series, Fire TV, and Echo family. Amazon has established itself as an international brand and has reach far into its empire of retail. Amazon has separate retail websites for many countries such as UK, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. There is no denying that Amazon is one large and successful company.
Cover to the March 2017 issue of “The Economist” magazine
However there is more to the picture as to why Amazon is a prime example of a business empire. Amazon is a business empire because of its ambition and continued conquest of the retail industry. A fundamental aspect of empire is the desire to expand and spread its influence and control. Recently in 2017, Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market for a whooping $13.4 billion. This purchase of the chain of healthy grocery brick and mortar stores really increased Amazon’s revenue from physical retail stores. I find this particular purchase interesting because many people view it as an attempt to directly challenge Walmart as a physical store. It is like the equivalent of the great Greek and Trojan war, two massive empires going against each other. Walmart is still the biggest physical retailer in the United States and has an online website it uses to bring in e-commerce revenue. However, Amazon is the largest online retailer and now has physical stores through Whole Foods to bring in revenue. Being these two empires of companies will face off, will brick and mortar stores with a little bit of ecommerce win against a primary e-commerce company that is expanding into a few physical locations. My contention is that Amazon will come out on top. I might be biased because I personally love shopping on Amazon and do not frequent Walmart often. The reason for my belief in Amazon’s success in Empire is that Amazon is more innovative. They are developing new proprietary technology and is successfully integrating them in consumer’s lives. For example, the Amazon lockers are extremely easy to use and can increase sales greatly in areas that previously do not order online because of the hassle and risk of receiving packages in certain areas like low income neighborhoods. Amazon is also working on drones to deliver packages. Amazon introduced the Amazon Key and other new technologies. I believe Amazon is the retailer of the future and we are about to usher in a new era in the business world of retail.
Oeconomia Imperium 
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