Pets.com

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Pets.com was an online store in San Francisco that sold pet supplies. It started in November 1998 and shut down on November 9, 2000. The site became famous for its sock puppet mascot and big advertising, including a Super Bowl commercial in 2000 and a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance in 1999, but the company never made a profit and is remembered as a symbol of the dot-com crash.

Investors and growth: Amazon helped fund Pets.com, owning a large stake in 1999 and about 30% by 2000. The company went public in February 2000, raising $82.5 million with the ticker IPET. It spent heavily on warehouses, shipping, and marketing, and even bought its largest remaining competitor, Petstore.com, in June 2000 for $10.6 million.

What went wrong: In its first full year (Feb–Sep 1999), Pets.com earned only $619,000 in revenue but spent $11.8 million on advertising. It sold many items at prices well below cost to attract customers, while shipping heavy goods like cat litter cut profits further. Margins were only 2–4%, making long-term profitability unlikely. By 2000 the company was still losing money despite rising sales.

Marketing and the sock puppet: The Pets.com sock puppet became a cultural phenomenon, appearing on TV and in magazines, and even at Macy’s Parade with a large float. The campaign helped build brand awareness but did not fix the business model. The puppet line expanded to merchandise, a toy, and an autobiography, and there were legal tangles over likenesses with other performers (the case was dismissed in 2001).

Closure and what happened next: In September 2000, Pets.com opened a call center in Indiana to cut costs. In early November, the company announced it would stop taking orders, laying off most of its staff. About 570,000 customers remained. The stock collapsed from its $11 IPO price to around $0.19 by the time of the liquidation. In December 2000, Pets.com’s assets, including domains and trademarks, were sold to PetSmart. The Pets.com domain now redirects to PetSmart.com. The company’s name changed to IPET Holdings in January 2001, with liquidation completed on January 18, 2001.

Legacy: Pets.com supported a charity called Pets.commitment with Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, funding shelters and wellness programs. The sock puppet’s fame continued to symbolize the dot-com era’s hype. Later comparisons were drawn to Chewy.com, which analysts noted as very different, even as Chewy’s IPO reignited talk of Pets.com’s legacy.