Bed Bath & Beyond To Close Hundreds Of Stores Due To COVID-19
This one really bums me out! I LOVE Bed Bath & Beyond, and I'm not ready to say goodbye to another one of my favorite stores. But alas, here we are.
Bed Bath & Beyond announced that they will be closing around 200 stores over the next two years after their sales took a big hit by nearly 50% because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The impact of the COVID-19 situation was felt across our business during our fiscal first quarter, including loss of sales due to temporary store closures and margin pressure from the substantial channel shift to digital," Mark Tritton, Bed Bath & Beyond's President and CEO said. "From the beginning of this crisis, we have taken measured, purposeful steps to help keep our people safe and our customers serviced, and we are proud of the way our teams have navigated this unprecedented challenge with speed and agility. At the same time, our actions to strengthen our financial position and liquidity are enhancing our flexibility and capacity to invest and rebuild our business for long-term success."
It wasn't all bad news for the company. Over the months of April and May, the company's online sales grew by 100%. You're welcome :)
But really, it shows that people are more and more comfortable shopping online nowadays. For me, this was nothing new, but I did still love to go in the store from time to time.
There are changes that were made in response to the pandemic including Buy-Online-Pick-Up-In-Store and Curbside pickup services.
Bed Bath & Beyond operates 955 stores, but there was no mention of what stores would be closing. The company also owns 500 Christmas Tree Shops, Harmon Face Values and Buy Buy Baby stores - it's not clear if these stores will be closing as well.