Description
Bed Bath & Beyond is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 500 and the Forbes Global 2000.
History
Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein worked in management positions at discount store chain Arlan's. As the company suffered financial difficulties, and the two believed that the market would shift toward specialty stores, they decided to leave and form their own company. In 1971, they opened a store in Springfield, New Jersey, called Bed 'n Bath. By 1985, Eisenberg and Feinstein were operating 17 stores in the New York metropolitan area and California. Also in 1985, the first superstore was opened, as an attempt to remain competitive with Linens 'n Things, Pacific Linen, and Luxury Linens. In order to properly represent the size increase in its retail stores, the company changed its name to Bed Bath & Beyond in 1987. The company adopted integrated computer-based inventory management systems in 1993 to better compete with Linens ‘n Things, which had utilized computer inventory management since the late 1980s.
By 1991, Bed Bath & Beyond had opened seven new superstores in New Jersey, California, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, and Florida.
By 2011, Bed Bath & Beyond had 1,142 stores.
The company went public in June 1992, making its IPO on the NASDAQ stock exchange, where its stock continues to trade under ticker symbol BBBY. Bed Bath & Beyond first reached $1 billion in annual sales in 1999.
In March 2019, three activist investment firms—Legion Partners, Marcellum Advisors, and Ancora Advisors—announced their intent to remove current CEO Steven Temares and restructure Bed Bath & Beyond’s current board of directors. The activist investors highlighted several instances of perceived nepotism, including the acquisition of Buy Buy Baby, which was founded by two of Bed Bath & Beyond co-founder Leonard Feinstein’s children, and the acquisition of Chef Central, which was created by co-founder Warren Eisenberg’s son, as examples of poor business practices at Bed Bath & Beyond. This pressure led five independent directors to step down on April 22, 2019, and also resulted in the company restructuring its board to include only 10 directors instead of the previous 12 members.
On April 13, 2019, there was a report that the chain would close 40 stores but open 15 new locations.
On May 13, 2019, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that CEO Steven Temares would step down “effectively immediately” and would resign his seat on the board of directors. Mary Winston, who had been appointed to the company's board as a result of the activist investment firms’ efforts, replaced Temares as interim CEO. On November 4, 2019, Mark Tritton, who was previously Target's chief merchandising officer, started as Bed Bath & Beyond's CEO.
The company, which has for decades used coupon mailers and other promotional discounting tactics to attract consumers, also announced in April that it would reduce its use of promotional coupons and tighten restrictions on their use. To combat declining profitability, Bed Bath & Beyond is also creating private-label brands and opening “lab stores” that focus on home decor, food and drink, and health and beauty products.
Bed Bath & Beyond currently operates approximately 1,530 stores in all 50 U.S. states, as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada. In addition to more than 1,020 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, the company also operates approximately 280 Cost Plus World Markets, 100 Buybuy Baby stores, roughly 80 Christmas Tree Shops (and related brands), and more than 50 Harmon stores.
The company was expected to close up to sixty stores around the United States in early 2020. In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced it would close more than 200 stores, about 21%, over the next two years.
Bed Bath & Beyond closed several locations around 2020 and 2021 with the latest round of about 7 Store that finished up liquidation sales with Hilco Merchants on Thursday, May 13, 2021.
In 2021, Bed Bath & Beyond was among a list of retailers to cut ties with MyPillow, deciding to launch two new brands, Nestwell and Simply Essential. They launched by mid-2021.
