Pets.com, a pet supply website that gained fame during the dot-com bubble, shut down its operations in November 2000.
The company faced several challenges, including:
Mismanagement: Pets.com's business model was flawed from the start, and the company struggled with shipping large items like dog food bags.
Competition: The market was crowded with other online pet stores and brick-and-mortar pet stores, making it difficult for Pets.com to stand out and compete.
Investor Disinterest: Despite attracting big-name investors like Amazon, Pets.com's investors lost interest in the company due to its continuous losses.
In the end, Pets.com declared bankruptcy and closed its doors, with its stock trading at $0.22 a share on the day of the announcement.
The company laid off 255 of its 320 employees and sold most of its assets, including the rights to its Sock Puppet mascot. The remaining funds were used to pay back investors what they could. Pets.com became one of the most notorious victims of the dot-com bubble that occurred in the 2000s. As of 2020, the domain has been bought by Petsmart.