New Online Pet Retailer Is No Pets.com

from the trying-it-again dept

Perhaps the most iconic failure of the dot-com era was Pets.com, which pretty much symbolized everything that was wrong during that period. Of course, there's no particular reason why an online pet supply store couldn't be successful. Red Herring notes that online retailer Pet Food Direct has completed a fresh round of investments (via Dealbook); naturally, the magazine makes allusions to Pets.com. But the lesson to be drawn from Pets.com had nothing to do with selling pet food, rather it was all about the company's profligate spending and silly marketing gimmicks. So unless we start to see a return of sock puppet mascots and Super Bowl ads for startups, there's nothing to be particularly alarmed about here.
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  • identicon
    Jemma, 19 Jun 2007 @ 6:03pm

    Pets.com RIP

    It's greedy sows like me who put Pets.com out of business! Since the company provided me with an endless stream of free coupons and electronic gift cards, I rarely paid for anything except the cost of shipping. The rational part of my brain understood that all of the dot coms were going to bust up sooner or later, because they all used the same sales tactic to draw in customers.

    My biggest Pets.com score was a $25 gift certificate and free shipping, regardless of the weight of the item purchased. So I bought two hundred dollars worth of cat litter. The look on the UPS guy's face was, as they say, priceless, when he innocently asked 'What the hell do you have in these heavy boxes, cat litter?' Hundreds of pounds of cat litter, carried up three flights of stairs. I opened the last box of cat litter about two years after Pets.com went bust.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Mark, 19 Jun 2007 @ 6:34pm

      Re: Pets.com RIP

      So, you paid $175 for cat litter? Albeit did last you several years, didn't the wasted space take away from the purchase?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 19 Jun 2007 @ 7:00pm

      Re: Pets.com RIP

      try chicken feed starter, from a feed lot. It is like $12 for a 50 pound bag and works great for litter. Just as good as world's best at 1 dollar a pound or so.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Math Police, 20 Jun 2007 @ 9:43am

        Re: Re: Pets.com RIP

        if its about a dollar a pound, wouldn't it be about $50 for a 50 pound bag?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      DittoBox, 19 Jun 2007 @ 8:03pm

      Re: Pets.com RIP

      You sir/ma'am/miss have my eternal admiration.

      I salute you.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ferin, 20 Jun 2007 @ 5:32am

    Pet food suppliers

    My parents use a similar service to have their pet food delivered at home. It's a hell of a lot cheaper, and they have all the nutrional info and feeding tips, plus a huge selection of different foods. They've even put info about where the foods come from up since the whole mess with the wet food a few months ago. It's really quite nice, place the order, put the can outside, and when you come home, a fresh bag of food is in the can waiting. The .com bubble produced a lot of jokes, but I agree that this demonstrates that a lot of the company's did have some decent ideas, even if they screwed up the execution so completely.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Jun 2007 @ 6:33am

    Do you want a giraffe?

    petsovernight.com "Delivering little bundles of love, in a box, directly to your door."

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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