Burning Though $25 Million. Gazoontite's Last Sneeze?

Clicks Meet Mortar... Sharp-eyed readers will remember that I wrote about Gazoontite in the July 31, 2000 PikeNet Dispatch. Gazoontite, which sold products for allergy and asthma sufferers, had just dropped .com from its name and laid off half of its staff of 100. It planned to use the savings to open 20 new retail outlets across the country to add to its four existing locations. At the time management expected that its $26.5 million in venture financing would last until the "early 2001." Oops. Gazoontite filed for bankruptcy on October 5, 2000. The web site is still online, although I doubt that it's been updated. (That's an understatement.) According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on Oct 11, 2000, "Gazoontite remains hopeful that the five retail stores -- San Francisco; Costa Mesa (Orange County); Schaumburg, IL; New York City; and Garden City, NY -- will continue to prosper or could be sold to another company." Bricks beat clicks.

I love the last paragraph of that same article. "Some online retailers also see increasing merit in having actual stores to sell their merchandise. For example, publicly traded IParty.com, which sells party supplies, recently bought 33 stores in the Northeast to expand beyond the net." Here's the story. Turns out that, according to an August 7, 2000 press release, IParty.com (AMEX - IPT) "announced its intention to acquire 33 retail stores from The Big Party Corporation ... located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Florida and Maine. ... The Big Party filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year." ... So maybe the headline should read "Clicks Salvage Bricks." Hey, maybe people are just not having enough parties.

--Peter Pike