Amazon Sales, Hiring Up 40 Percent for Quarter, Year, Respectively

Amazon has reported net sales were up 39 percent in the third quarter of 2010, and that Kindle sales were…. Well, there are no numbers attached, but the general impression is that they’re selling Kindles at a fine rate, and proud we are of all of them. Interestingly, while media sales were up 14 percent, sales of electronics and other merchandise grew 68 percent.

Amazon may be the leader in online retail, but Forbes wonders how good the investment angle is, given Amazon’s legendarily razor-thin margins. One impact on those margins, as TechFlash reports, is that Amazon has increased its employee headcount by 44 percent from last year. (An earlier story noted that “Fulfillment costs in Q3 were up nearly 46 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $680 million.”)

Amazon moved into its South Lake Union offices earlier this year, and now the area is full of hustle and bustle–forget a quick bite to eat at Blue Moon Burgers if it’s anywhere around noon. Back on Beacon Hill, the ex-Amazon Tower is forlornly waiting for its lease to expire next May; in three years, nobody the size of Amazon has come knocking to rent the 16 floors.