Priceline growth may sputter on upcoming gas-price program debut

May 21, 2000

By JIM BROOKS

William Shatner has been spokesman/investor/and vocalist in Priceline.com commercials since the company's debut some xxx years ago, but the former Star Trek captain may soon be singing the blues.

Priceline.com -- the "name-your-own-price" pioneer that has successfully expanded its lineup from hotel rooms to include car rentals, long distance phone service, home financing and groceries -- is running into trouble with its plan to discount the price of gasoline.

All major oil companies appear to have thumbed their noses at the suggestion that they discount their gasoline prices.

The premise that fueled Priceline.com's success was simple -- empty seats on airline flights are lost income for the airline. If they can sell those seats, it is in the airline's financial interest to sell, even if they must offer them at a discount.

The idea has worked for the other services and products beyond airline tickets.

But gasoline doesn't work well in this "sell it or lose it" business model, according to industry officials in a recent Reuters wire story.

Unlike airline seats, unsold gasoline isn't wasted -- it is stored until sold at a later date.

The program, set to start signing up users soon, would allow participants to save up to 20 cents per gallon by letting them bid on gas purchased at its Web site.

Priceline.com officials maintain they are still planning to go ahead with the program.

Consumers would bid on up to 50 gallons of gas per month, with potential savings between 10 and 20 cents per gallon. Actual bids on gasoline won't begin until late June.

Priceline.com officials say nearly 1 million users are waiting to take part in the program.

If the petroleum companies don't participate in the program directly, Priceline.com officials say the program's sponsors will still make discounts possible.

For the latest news on the "name your own price" gas program, visit Priceline.com's Web site.

GROCERY SAVINGS. And speaking of Priceline.com, the company's "name your own price" program for groceries has been going strong at local Winn Dixie and Meijer stores.

You can't miss the in-store displays and the Priceline.com green cards all over the place.

Watch this column for my in-store report on Priceline.com's grocery program. If you're using the program, let me know what your experience has been.

FONT-TASTIC NEWS. Word processors have truly made the typewriter a thing of the past.

One of the real benefits of using a computer to create and print documents is the ability to use fonts -- different styles of type -- in your documents.

The font you select can add an air of formality -- or frivolity -- to your letter, newsletter or yard sale flyer.

Fonts come in all different shapes and sizes, and there are thousands available for free on the Web.

The first -- and probably last -- place you'll need to stop for free fonts is the 1001 Free Fonts Web site at www.1001freefonts.com.

Mac users should take notice -- 1001 Free Fonts also includes versions for the Macintosh operating system.

The fonts are categorized alphabetically by name, and samples of each let you know ahead of time what you're getting before you decide to download it.

There are some very specialized fonts available, and you'll probably wind up doing as I did and downloading quite a few -- just in case I need that "cool" font for a Web page or print document.

MANAGE THOSE FONTS. If you're addicted to fonts as I am, you'll need some sort of software to help you manage that ever-expanding collection.

I don't know if Windows 98 has an upper limit on the number of fonts you can have installed, but I recall running into a problem when I had more than 500 fonts installed under Windows 95 on an older 486 system I had once. In short, if you have a lot of fonts, it pays to manage them.

For years I've used a shareware program from Alchemy Mindworks called Font Wrangler.

Not only does Font Wrangler make it easy to add and remove fonts to your Windows 95/98 operating system, but it also can print out a nifty chart of your installed fonts and examples of each font. This handy chart makes selecting a font much simpler -- especially when you find out that font names don't always describe a font's appearance.

There are many other font manager programs available, both commercial releases and shareware.

For more information on Font Wrangler, visit Alchemy Mindworks' Web site at www.mindworkshop.com.

For other font manager software choices, visit ZDNet's software download site at www.zdnet.com/download/.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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