Born and Branded in Seattle Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amazon

Amazon nearly had a different moniker: Cadabra, a reference to magic tricks and items appearing out of thin air. Unfortunately, it also sounded gruesomely similar to the word "cadaver," and founder Jeff Bezos ultimately took his lawyer's advice and changed the name. Incorporated in 1994, Amazon launched as an online bookstore in 1995 and soon expanded into other types of goods. By 2018 about 1 of every 20 U.S. retail dollars was spent on Amazon.

In 2017, the company announced a competition to select the location of its second headquarters, promising billions in construction spending and some 50,000 jobs at the new location. The competition was fierce, with localities offering everything from free sandwiches to giant cacti. In early 2018 Amazon whittled the field down to 20 finalists. The final decision was anxiously awaited.

Answer: Zillow

Zillow's founders, former Microsoft executives Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, were looking for a new challenge after selling off Expedia - and they were also looking for new homes. In their frustration at the difficulty of finding solid information on available real estate, they realized there would be a strong market for house hunting on the information superhighway, and Zillow was born. The somewhat silly name was chosen to be unique, memorable and evocative both of data (zillion) and comfort (pillow).

Zillow makes it simple to browse houses and apartments in a neighborhood, and then contact people who can help make the transaction happen. I can say from experience that looking at the listings and photos is a great way to start figuring out what you want in a home!

Answer: From the scientific name of the cacao tree

Cocoa beans, the primary raw ingredient of chocolate, are the seeds of Theobroma cacao, an evergreen tree that grows well in tropical regions. The quoted description of Theo's business practices comes from the company's website; "organic" means that the farmers avoid synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, while "fair trade" means that Theo takes responsibility for paying the farmers equitably for the raw product. Theo Chocolate, founded in 2006, takes pride in its "bean to bar" system and its direct relationship with farmers around the world.

The chocolate is made at the Seattle factory; you can smell the place a few blocks away, depending on the wind. The completed bars are distributed around the US. In my opinion, Theo's chocolate bars fully deliver on the etymological promise of the name Theobroma - food of the gods.

Answer: UPS

The origin of UPS - then called the American Messenger Company - is an instantly recognizable Seattle startup story. Two teenagers, Claude Ryan and Jim Casey, started a business with big dreams, hard work, and a shoestring budget. The main contrast to the modern story is that, it being 1907, the boys couldn't operate out of a garage; instead, they housed the fledgling company in a basement.

Thanks in part to a well-executed merger with a rival messenger company, the business started to use cars and motorcycles for delivery in 1913. In 1918, the company expanded beyond Seattle (to Oakland, California), adopted its modern name (United Parcel Service, or UPS), and painted its delivery fleet brown. Many more changes were to come over the years, but the shape of the modern company was already recognizable.

Answer: Roasted coffee beans

Starbucks - named after a character in "Moby Dick" by founders Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gordon Bowker - was initially a purveyor of whole roasted beans, not brewed coffee nor even grounds. It wasn't until 1984 that the company began to branch out into serving coffee ready to drink, at the behest of Howard Schultz. Three years later the company, now controlled by Schultz, expanded to other cities.

They broke the 100-store mark in 1991, and had over 1000 stores by the end of 1996; by 2015, more than 20,000 Starbucks stores were serving coffee all over the world.

Answer: Travel

Expedia owns and operates numerous search engines and aggregators for hotels, airfares, apartment rentals, and so on. If you've ever searched for good flights on Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, or CheapTickets, you should know that (since at least 2015) they're all Expedia underneath. The company makes most of its money through hotel bookings - partly commissions and partly profit on hotel reservations that Expedia buys at bulk rates and then resells.

Before it was spun off, Expedia was born as a division of Microsoft in 1996, in the Seattle suburb of Redmond. Microsoft itself has been headquartered in Redmond since 1979, but was actually first founded in Albuquerque.

Answer: Ice axes

REI founders Lloyd and Mary Anderson loves the outdoors, but had trouble obtaining high-quality equipment in Seattle. In 1938 they began ordering ice axes directly from Austria via catalog, and soon their friends joined up with them to buy in bulk and get better prices. Collecting $1 membership fees, they set up a cooperative with warehousing in their attic and retail off a dedicated shelf at a local grocer.

Eventually the company expanded its offerings to serve a wider range of adventurers: novices and experts, on the water and in the mountains and everywhere in between, setting off on casual day trips or serious expeditions. REI now handles some $2 billion in revenue each year, but it's still a cooperative, and members receive dividends based on how much they spent in the last year.

Answer: Penny Arcade

Jerry Holkins writes the "Penny Arcade" webcomic, and Mike Krahulik illustrates it. In the highly episodic comic, the creators' alter egos, Tycho and Gabe, explore various aspects of video games and gaming culture, finding humor in anything from arcane gameplay mechanics to the dynamics of gaming groups. In 2004, they launched the wildly successful Penny Arcade Expo - later known simply as PAX - a Seattle gaming exposition that has since expanded its offerings to include annual events in Boston, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Melbourne. The annual Child's Play charity drive, meanwhile, seeks to provide toys and games for children's hospitals, for the enjoyment of the patients.

The incorrect answer choices are also webcomics, but none has achieved the multi-pronged success of Penny Arcade.

Answer: Shoes

John W. Nordstrom, a Swedish immigrant with a sizable nest egg from the Klondike Gold Rush, partnered with Alaska buddy Carl Wallin to start a shoe store once they had both returned to Seattle. Wallin & Nordstrom built a reputation for service and quality, and that reputation continued to grow in the 1920s as they opened a second Seattle store, and as Nordstrom's sons took over the business. Now simply called Nordstrom, the company remained strictly shoe-focused until 1963.

In that year Nordstrom bought Best's Apparel, and started branching out into clothing. Nowadays the retailer has numerous locations around the U.S. and Canada, and it's hard to imagine the stores selling nothing but shoes!

Answer: Boeing

The Boeing Corporation took its name from its founder, William Boeing, who retooled a shipyard to produce airplanes. At that time, in the early 1910s, Seattle was an important transshipment point for the lumber industry, and the ready availability of wood (particularly spruce) made it a favorable spot for airplane construction as well. Through innovative aircraft design - and cultivation of wartime military contracts - the company swiftly became a powerhouse.

The huge Boeing facility in Everett was built in 1966 on an absurd scale: 4.3 million square feet (398,000 square meters) with a footprint of nearly 100 acres (40 hectares). A jetliner assembly line takes quite a lot of space! It's possible to tour the structure if you're ever in the area; I highly recommend it.