Bed Bath & Beyond filed has filed for bankruptcy and announced it will begin permanently closing down its business at all its 360 stores on Wednesday. The company also said its 120 Buy Buy Baby stores will also be permanently shut down.
Closing sales will begin Wednesday at all locations. Online shopping will also remain available. The company also said all purchases during the store’s closing sales will be final.
Bed Bath & Beyond said that customers will be able to use gift cards through May 8 and redeem Welcome Rewards until May 15.
The company which was founded in 1971, filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in New Jersey.
“Thank you to all of our loyal customers. We have made the difficult decision to begin winding down our operations,” the company said on its website.
“We appreciate that our customers have trusted us through the most important milestones in their lives – from going to college, to getting married, to settling into a new home, to having a baby,” the company said in an email to shoppers on Sunday. “We have initiated a process to wind down operations.”
Bed Bath & Beyond reported that it intends to conduct a limited sale and marketing process for some or all of its assets and is requesting the bankruptcy court for permission to market Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby as part of an auction as allowed by the federal Bankruptcy Code.
“In the event of a successful sale, the Company will pivot away from any store closings needed to implement a transaction,” they added.
Bed Bath & Beyond has steadily seen a decline in business and profits since the post-Covid era.
Last summer, itannounced an aggressive restructuring planin the hope of turning around its failing business performance. It shut down some stores, fired some workers, and streamlined its inventory process.
However, that did not help as the company’s sales and revenues continued to drop, posting a loss of almost $393 million in 2022 as of November.
A major reason for the fall of Bed Bath & Beyond was attributed to its brick-and-mortar structure as against online retailers like Amazon. The Covid pandemic and lockdown also saw the end of companies such as J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J. Crew.
