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Gas, grocery shutdown just latest woe for site
William Shatner's offbeat commercials for Priceline.com took the site where no online auctioneer had gone before, but the company's stock has fallen from a high of $165 to less than $6 per share - a cautionary tale for would-be electronic retailers, say analysts.
In the past month, Norwalk, Conn.-based Priceline.com Inc. has found itself kicked out of the Better Business Bureau of Connecticut for a failure to respond to customer complaints and under investigation by Connecticut's attorney general. The investigation is exploring whether Priceline has fully and accurately disclosed product terms, prices and conditions.
In the past four months, Priceline's stock has fallen from $40 per share to $5.81 on the Nasdaq ticker, as of last Thursday That same day, Priceline announced it was shutting down its grocery and gasoline sales operations.
Analysts fault the company for thinking low prices and glitzy packaging alone would pave the way to profitability.
Approximately 70%...