• MSNBC/AP, Friday, June 15, 2007 11:45 AM

Hammering on Amazon.com's "customer-centric" approach during the company's annual meeting yesterday, CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that the Web retailer won't make a profit on the more than 1 million pre-orders for the final Harry Potter book, due out in July. Amazon is offering a $17 discount off the cover price, free shipping and guaranteed on-time delivery of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Bezos also told 50 or so shareholders that Amazon sacrifices $600 million in shipping revenue each year, thanks to the $79-a-year Amazon Prime free-shipping membership available in the U.S. and Japan, and other shipping offers. Bezos also showed off the "Subscribe and Save" program that lets U.S. customers set up recurring deliveries of certain grocery items and save 15%.

Shareholders should be watching to see if new initiatives like Web services and sales of music and movie downloads pay of, Bezos says. "We won't be right every time," he warns.

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