Bed Bath & Beyond Is in Crisis Mode. What Went Wrong? | WSJ 

Having worked there for five years, I can tell you they don't invest anything into their stores! We kept the stores spotless as employees, that's why they don't necessarily look outdated, but our registers were from 1986, when the store moved locations in 1999 they moved the registers to the new location. I worked there from 2015 to 2020 with 1986 registers. The inventory system is completely out of date too, even though the distribution center is only four hours away it would take customers up to two weeks to have their items delivered to our store. Not to mention it's nearly impossible for us to tell what the inventory is, and inventory levels were often off by a significant amount despite an annual audit. Everything had to be entered manually, we had a piece of paper where we would write down the SKU numbers and it would take literally hours to update the inventory system. Many employees would simply sweep up the damaged/destroyed items up because the stores were always understaffed and we didn't have time to interface with the outdated system without losing customers, or letting other very important jobs go unattended. When the lighting went out in a portion of the store the manager had to call corporate multiple times for months and it took the company nearly 4 months to send someone out to fix the lighting that couldn't be turned on in a solid quarter of the store. The Target across the street was completely gutted and renovated two times while I worked at bed Bath and beyond, bed bath and beyond made no improvements to their store during this period, they haven't made any for a very long time before that, and hasn't made any since. They also chronically understaffed and under pay their workers. It's a shame the employees there were honestly very good people, many having spent decades working for the company.

like with jcpenney you have a ceo who doesn't understand the loyal shopper and makes dramatic changes while taking on loads of debt sinking the company in the process.

not shocked, looked on their website for something last week, showed it was in stock at the BBB store 3 blocks away. I went there to find out they never had it in stock. Came home and tried to order it online, what a hassle and it wouldnt accept the 20% coupon I had for soem reason.. ended up just ordering it on Amazon with 2 quick clicks. BBB has a horrible business model and should fail

You aren't tested until a company you own and believe in is down 30-40-50% from its highs. You will question your conviction, your strategy, your process. The market has a way of finding your breaking point. Nothing tests your conviction like falling stock prices.

I see smaller places going out of business everywhere, but when a major one starts to topple it sends a different message to me. This is why i still go to the local libraries, one of the few places you can just go to and spend nothing....they are some of the last last havens left

It always seemed unsustainable to me-WAYY-too much stuff in the store-seemed like more of a retail amusement park than a practical business model.

It has declined thanks to Boston Consulting Group.

Retail is just a tough business. It has ruined the reputations of many CEOs who were previously successful elsewhere.

Three words. Boston Consulting Group. Plan? Insert people into the board. Make bad decisions. Pile up debt. Short the stock and profit. Rinse and repeat.

I worked here in the mid 90s while in high school. At that time, they insisted we actually learn about the products and their competitors' products so we could really educate and help customers find what they needed. When was the last time you found someone in the store who even knows where things are? You can't charge a premium on price without offering premium value. And those 20% off coupons only work when customers can't instantly see on their smartphone that your prices are 30% higher. It used to be that BB&B was the only place in most areas where you could actually purchase high end products and now everyone can by anything and have it shipped to their house. They just didn't even try to adapt. They also expected ME, a minor, to work until midnight or 1 am on school nights (illegal) to make everything look perfect. So I only stayed a month or two.

This analysis is spot-on. My wife LOVED Bed Bath & Beyound. She even kept their coupons in the door pockets of our two cars. But the key here is the "ed" in "loved" . When the stores changed their layouts and product selections, it ruined the shopping experience for long time and loyal customers like my wife. She never considered BB & B "cluttered", a term she saved for Walmart or Dollar stores. Instead she considered the well and neatly stocked BB & B a more fun to shop version of Target, with things she would discover and many times buy when she went there for other items. It was a fun and unique place to shop with produced priced for every purse. But then our local BB & Bs suddenly closed. First in Salinas and then a year ago in Paso Robles. This really saddened my wife who would pop into the Paso store while I was at Lowe's next door. This store always had customers at the register buying things and she couldn't understand why the store closed until watching this video. Two months ago we were further south in San Luis Obispo and we stopped at the BB & B there. We walked into the store and my wife immediately hated the new look and layout. She said it was sterile and too upscale like many other high end stores. We walked around and the place was like a tomb devoid of customers. With nothing fun and unique to discover and few of the regular selection of items we would normally pick up. We left without purchasing anything which was a first. It's unlikely we will be going back again and if BB & B goes out of business we will only miss it for what it once was. Sometimes change is good and necessary for a business to survive. Maybe BB & B would have failed anyway if they had remained unchanged. But it appears that they threw the baby out with the bathwater when they completely changed their stores and the products they carry. In hindsight, which is always 20/20, as they exited the pandemic retail shutdowns they should have leveraged their loyal customer base and then made incremental changes to expand BB & B's appeal to bring in new customers. Sure online shopping is a problem but the old BB & B wasn't just a place to shop. Unlike most retailers it was a place that offered customers the fun and thrill of hands-on discovery and always something new. The new CEO should consider "what's old is new again", returning to the original store concepts and stocking. He might consider doing a mia copa media campaign like Domino's CEO personally did over a decade ago when they screwed up. Reestablish BB & B's unique identity to get ex-customer like my wife and I to return along with excited new customers to walk through the doors. At this point, what's there to lose? And unlike the prior new-look upscaling effort, returning stores back to BB & B's roots has got to be a pretty cheap thing to do. FYI: the old Paso Robles store is still vacant. How about making my wife happy by reopening a retro BB & B there?

Retail shopping has become a hassle. With traffic issues, bad costumer service and an inability to find the items I’m actually looking for. Even their employees would suggest getting it online from Amazon. Online is SO much easier than shopping in person.

If their website and customer support wasnt trash, i'd use them more often. I tried 3-4 times to buy a mixer and even signed up for their "prime" service, but with 2-3 calls to customer support and even asking for a manager they couldnt help me buy the mixer. The purchase would go through but it would be cancelled within 20 minutes. They even cancelled by plus membership but i kept the benefits on my account. I'd try to click through their promotional emails and it would just crash the website and the coupons would all disappear. I spent well over an hour (spread out through the week) just trying to purchase one item and with tech support's help i couldnt get it to work. So I bought the mixer from a competitor...

This video was eye opening! The last three times I have visited the store, I wondered what in the heck was going on. I couldn't find many of my regular products and my store was completely remodeled. They lost their way when they began opening Harmon stores which kind of competed with one another. The Chelsea and Upper West Side stores in NYC have been ruined in my opinion.

It's so clear Bed Bath and Beyond is going to become one of those stores people wax nostalgic about for years to come after they inevitably liquidate soon. Much like Toys R Us, much like Blockbuster. Really sad honestly, I still think it's a great store. Debt can be lethal.

If stores went all in on the online shopping experience and had very helpful live customer service help with competitive prices it can survive and succeed...... but what do I now 🤔 smh

There are too many of these stores, I would of reduced the number of stores and strength its online presence and turned the remaining stores into fulfillment services.

Is anyone surprised? They fell behind on technology and suffer the consequences. Amazon doesn’t kill big box retailers. Big box retailers suffer when they fail to adapt to changing customer behavior. Numerous businesses have learned to succeed. Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Menards, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kohls. They all adapted a usable and convenient online presence.

BB&B needs to merge with Kohls. There is no reason to have these massive stores filled with stuff people don't want. Face it - it's Walmart, Target, Costco, and Amazon. Everyone left is just not cutting it.

Been to a BB&B store recently… looked to me like they are weeks away from bankruptcy. It was a sad sight to see.

This store is getting what they deserve. Their products are poor quality and overpriced and the branch nearest me treats their customers terribly.

I went in and wanted to buy the sample shower curtain. They refused to sell it to me then couldn’t order it for me. We picked out a shower mat and it was like $80. It has held up really well and I have since gone through 2 $20 discount retailer mats in the other bathroom, so the BBB one is totally better. I used to go to BBB to get small gifts to add on to all gifts at the last minute during the holidays. Another time I went they had really creepy anti bug bedding’s and that made me so uncomfortable with shopping there. I also started seeing a lot more polyester based items. I was wanting organic natural goods and they seemed to be going the opposite direction.

Too much Bed and Bath, not enough Beyond.

After years of *CoViD-19,* no foot traffic, dying malls, online retailers starting with much lower price points, the rise of fast free or nearly free delivery, and you're asking this? *_Are you serious?_*

I stopped shopping at BBB because it was difficult to find name brands. Most of the brands appeared to be their own and they were of lower quality.

Paying $10 for a cup of Starbucks is the next casualty.

ordering online from them is a nightmare. their shipping timeline is never correct. it can take weeks to get an item when they tell you it will take days. If possible do curbside pick-up or delivery from store instead. Much more reliable.

it lists items as on sale, but it's not. It's sale items are more expensive than Amazon.

You really don’t see the problem was having everything made by China and overseas. So now people just went to those producers directly now.

If WSJ is bearish on BBBY, I’m bullish.

-Real Cause COSTCO: BB&B: Dollar General quality at higher than Macy's prices. VERSES Costco: Higher than Macy's quality at Dollar General Prices. -Nothing ever new at BB&B: inventory to ceiling means that if visit 2 years later the same items (including patterns/colors) from same shipment at same prices still there. -Stores must offer a temptation of winning, through clearance bargains/blowout sales (Kohls and Macys) or limited time offers (Costco) or just inexpensive (Walmart)

I went there last month, everything was still very expensive, you can get them at least half the price on Amazon. They should have learned from the failure of sears.

What kind of shoddy reporting is this? The share price decline over the past year is not at all relevant to the story unless you put it into context with the $11 billion the company has spent on share buybacks over the years. Without these buybacks the company would be financially stable, have adequate cash reserves to make it through a business downturn, and invest for the future instead of having to divest one of its best assets and dealing with a looming bankruptcy procedure.

I used to shop @ BB&B back in the 90's and early 2000. But ever since Amazon made it easier to order online and cheaper. Well, that was pretty much a done deal. Even right now, it helps to have Amazon, bc of gas prices when driving to a shopping store, I don't have to drive around.

I loved shopping at bed bath and beyond but I always thought they were expensive

They insulted half their customers by dumping MyPillow. Never insult a large segment of the customer base.

I tried to go to Bed Bath and Beyond earlier today. They don't open here until 11 AM! I don't want to shop that late in the day. I am very disappointed. And for actual checking of quality - which one can't do on line - I am sorry, I don't want to shop after 11 am. I'll find other sources for what I want. Open by 9 am or just shut the place up. (I would deal with 10 am - but half the day is over when they open at 11!!!)

I remember shopping there for curtains and was so disappointed with the layout of the store. Decided to go to JCPenney, target and Amazon for most of my home items

People aren't impulse buying dubious housewares during a global housing crisis?! I'm SHOCKED!!!

the supply shortage and internal buyers really hurts them. been several times over the past year and there was hardly any of the products i used to buy there two to three years ago.

I went to a B, B & B to get a foam contour pillow. It's a department store with the apathetic atmosphere of a CVS.

Stopped shopping there a long time ago. After a couple of years my curiosity got the better of me and I went in yesterday. It was empty, with good reason. It was a mess, in every way. Expensive with poor choice of merchandise.

To me it's very hard to find anything. Would appreciate if the aisles were labeled and people could go online to see where the products are in the store. I don't want to ask an employee.

I remember going to BB&B when I was a kid but as an adult I have never stepped in the store.

It’s too bad, as it’s nice to go into retail store in order to look at the products closer. You can’t get that same feedback online!

Where was this analysis back in 2017 -2019? The view from the rear view mirror is always clear

I love how large corporations hire people who aren’t even customers to run these brands. Like the music industry hiring accountants to run music labels.

It’s quite laughable when I hear people say they are unfortunate buying and selling stocks. Within the past few months, I have made huge returns buying and selling my stocks. It sounds as though it doesn’t involve some works but honestly it’s not as difficult as I thought at first. It’s all about being decisive. I will not recommend it. Peace!

I always thought this was place was weird and unnecessary. As someone born in the late 90s, their store concept was already past it's prime by the time we were buying stuff for our homes

I am old (and retired). I bought every toaster, coffeepot, and kitchen utensil I needed in the 80's and 90's. Now, I only need to replace an occasional item when things break or wear out. Although I don't buy many household items on AMAZON, I might have to, as more and more of the big boxes close. What's left? Kohl's and Macy's? Not a lot of choice otherwise.

Nobody talks about my stock daddy like that . I’ll see you on the wall streets

I'm sad to hear this. BBB had one of the best diversity, equity and inclusion employee training programs. What exactly caused this company to go broke and file BK?

From the beginning this store was like a brick and mortar version where you could find all the things that people now order on amazon. Their stores are full of cheap junk that you buy for your house for like $30 directly off the boat from china, except you have to go through the effort of driving to the store and navigating through their annoying and cramped aisles to find what you need. Why bother? It's usually cheaper on amazon anyway.

Mainstream legacy media will never admit BBandB refusing to sell MyPillow merchandise helped lead to its downfall!!!

I love BB&B. They have quality and good sales. This is a total bummer with what's happening to it.

When they tired to cancel "My Pillow", I stopped going there. Notice big drop mid 2021. Coincidence? Did a lot of people stop shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond in 2021?

You can not offer open returns. I took back towels that didn’t hold up “”100” percent after years of usage. Pots with burnt on food. lol. People can abuse their items. We were hand cuffed by the policies. People stealing without question. As a customer service representative my hands were tied.

I love BBB and pray it stays open

Target executive telling BB&BY on how to decluter? Seriously? This reminds me of the then JC Penny hired a former Target and APPLE executive to revamp it's stores during early 2000s. They re designed it's stores to be spacious, decluter , even trying to look like APPLE stores. They failed, it's customers love the weekly coupons, without coupons, customers don't have any incentives to buy. I used to find all types of deals in the clearance area , such as bedsheets, comforter 75% off after back to school sale. Recently, the clearance section was empty. Interestingly, furniture shores such as LIVING SPACES is expanding its stores from California to Texas. So maybe people need home office furniture vs appliances? I'm very careful when shopping at Amazon due to it's 3rd party vendors and fake reviews

My opinion of BB&B is tainted. I'm not a fan because one of their Reginal Managers threatened to sue me for denting her G-Wagon. She called the police, and once they arrived, we all watched the external video footage. It wasn't me. It was the car that was in the space before I parked. You could easily see a kid kicking the door open to get out, denting her G-Wagon. So I really can't feel sorry for this corporation going under.

What a coincidence this came out just as the stock price has gone up by 160%. This is just funded by short hedge funds who have over shorted it.

BB&B needs to get with the program & move everything onto Amazon or a website similar to it. Close all the stores, move everything into warehouses & go ham on online ads & GUIs just like Amazon.

I'm early-crop Gen Z and none of my friends even have their own bedroom or bathroom, let alone a "beyond."

Most Aussies like myself have only seen or heard of this franchise from the movie 'CLICK'

Another business loses to Amazon.

There was a time when I was getting about 3 junk mails from BBB and even some robo calls from them from about 2014-2019!! Insane!! And I NEVER stepped foot in any of them!! The nearest location for me was 10 miles from my residence in Attelboro Massachusetts.

Who else came here after the CEO jumped from a tower?

I’d rather see, touch, and buy at bbb over ordering online, even if I have to pay a little more.

I'm surprised they didn't go out of business a decade ago.

The store near me is dated, dirty, understocked, and looking like in bad repair. The prices I think are too high for what you are getting too. Towels cost too much for what you are getting.

Share buybacks of more than $10 billion. There, fixed your video for you

What happened? The CEO offended half of their customers & stopped stocking with My Pillow , making a political statement. When the public gets offended & angry, they will stop shopping.

Fun fact: the images at 1:16 and 1:21 are from Hunter's Square plaza in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

What they need to do is create a different reason for people to visit the stores. Such as a meeting lounge people can use to work remotely or meet a client. Or an outdoor space with lawns plants and benches people can relax in. Of course only for customers. I feel there is a need for these type of spaces and malls and stores can take advantage of them. More in person socializing is also good for mental health and needed for society.

That's crazy! Why is their stock value on a run in the upwards trajectory? Definitely going to support this company

I won't go back never did since stopped selling My Pillow products. An apology to company is required.

Funny I literally went an bought a foot massager from BB&B in store same day as I got off work bcuz my job destroys my feet. Anyways. Same day at bed bath an beyond or 3 to 5 days Amazon! Stop with making things only online. I go to stores more than I shop online

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On two separate occasions, I was overcharged for products purchased at my local BBB

It must be to settle all the lawsuits of people lost in the beyond section.

Problem is Walmart and Target have just about everything I need. What other stores do I need if those stores work for me....

Maybe they shouldn’t have alienated the customer base by getting political. Get woke go broke.

Title correction: BBBY shorts are in crisis mode*

Every time I tried them what I was looking for was online only. Place was just leftover surplus.

I used to get those 20% Coupons ALLLL the time.. That stopped some time ago.

Bed, Bath, & Bye-Bye.... honestly i don't understand why this company is still around. Its the 'Circuit City' & 'Blockbuster' of the 2020's.

I've never seen the appeal personally. I'd be happy to see all the big multinational online and physical businesses disappear and to have back independent stores again like we did before the 1980s

Are y'all serious? Didn't include the latest developments with Ryan Cohen and his letter to the board and outlined plan to turn things around... A la GameStop and see how that's going by checking their turnaround

My favorite store

Haven't paid too much attention to BBBY but since they've been in the news I went to their management page.. 3 white women, 2 asian women, 1 indian woman, 1 middle eastern man, and 1 south american man (now room temperature). That makeup seems unusual and makes me think they're picking people for reasons other than ability.

They burned their cash buying back stock until a few months ago...craziness

Rip bath bed and beyond 😢❤❤❤

This store is just a reminder of how bad retail experience used to be before e-commerce and free shipping. i.e. wasting hours driving, parking and waiting in check out lines.

It was doomed when they took those huge loans a few years back. Executives cashed out fat and left shareholders holding the bag

The stock market has been a really tough one this past year, but I watched an interview on CNBC where the anchor kept mentioning " TERESA JENSEN WHITE ". This prompted me to get in touch with her, and from March 2022 till now we have been working together, and I can now boast of $540,000 in my trading portfolio.

Its not always the online presence. HomeGoods in connection with TJMaxx is a mainstay.

That ceo turned bb&b into a carbon copy of Target. That's not innovative whatsoever

Well they canceled My Pillow guy, so its karma getting them...

You can’t compete with Amazon. Especially now that gas prices are up who is willing to drive when someone can just make the purchase in the comfort of their home.