Pet Airways- WTF? |
It is generally near the end of an economic peak that you see asinine business ideas that get funding. Near the end of the dot com bubble, we saw some truly great flops. A good one was flooz.com, which tried to have some sort of alternative currency people could use online…I mean, I know people may be losing faith in the dollar but cmon! There was, of course, the infamous pets.com, which in its nature doesn’t seem like a terrible idea. Some people after all may buy pet stuff online. But advertising multi-million dollar commercials during the super bowl probably isn’t a good idea.
Our recent recession saw a host of exotic credit and mortgage related products and companies that have since gone belly up. But one thing we have missed out on are some truly terrible ideas that people will invest millions into.
Along comes Pet Airways. This is an airline exclusive for pets. Yes, only for pets, no humans allowed. No, it’s not Southwest and you can take your dog on too. It’s only for your dog.
In the current economic climate, people are cutting back on vacations and staying at home. Last thing they’re going to do is shell out a few hundred bucks to send Fido first class. This is a business idea likely spawned by a bunch of people with large inheritances and too much fondness for their dogs. If people really wanted this, the commercial airlines would probably have special ‘dog flights’ where you you can fly with your dog…the last three rows are taken out and cages for animals are put in or something.
Too bad it’s not a public company, since that would be one fun short.