A bankruptcy court judge on Tuesday approved the sale of Bed Bath & Beyond’s name, intellectual property and ecommerce platform to Overstock.com for $21.5 million, and the company is winding down its store assets in various lease agreements. A separate auction is being held today for the company’s buybuy Baby assets, with interested parties including Go Global Retail and Sixth Street Partners.
Children’s apparel retailer Carter’s plans to open 50 new stores this year, and at least 1,000 by 2027, seeing an opportunity as its SKU rationalization, price realization between selling periods and inventory management have improved the unit economics for retail, while the online-store mix shifts a bit toward brick and mortar. Executives said consumer confidence is down but not as bad as in 2022.
Bed Bath & Beyond as expected filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 23 as its turnaround became untenable, loans were in default, debt far outstripped assets and buyers have yet to surface for its three retail brands. The company said in its filing it plans to maintain operations through the court proceedings thanks to a $240 million debtor-in-possession loan from Sixth Street.
Bed Bath & Beyond as expected posted a tough third-quarter report, with net sales and same-store sales down a third from last year and a net loss of $393 million as it considers a range of options up to and including a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. CEO Sue Gove said the company is listening to customers, but it may be too little, too late.
Bed Bath & Beyond has come to terms with activist investor Ryan Cohen and his firm RC Ventures, agreeing to add three board members put forward by Cohen in exchange for a “standstill agreement” that RC Ventures won’t seeking a doubling of its interest in the retailer.
Dark stores, even as a temporarily approach, can help offset the cost of underperforming stores and the expense of freight and logistics, especially in more densely populated areas. It also takes online fulfillment out of store operations, allowing retailers to concentrate on customer service and minimizing inventory confusion.
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) gives brands the ability to collect and utilize first-party consumer behavioral data to make the shopping experience more personalized, to build loyalty and improve advertising returns. The bigger and more detailed your data store is, the better you can target your core consumer and create repeat purchases.
Continuing a growing trend toward making ecommerce returns more convenient and safer for shoppers in the contactless pandemic era, Staples has struck a partnership with Optoro in which the office supply giant will accept unboxed returns from other retailers that will be processed by Optoro. More retailers will come online in January.
Coresight Research reported a total of 9,275 U.S. store closures by major retailers in 2019, 35% higher than the 6,897 closures recorded in 2018 as the bleeding continues. Closings outpaced store openings more than 2 to 1, Coresight found, with 4,454 new doors in 2019, compared to 4,311 in 2018.
Continuing a shakeup begun when six executives were let go last month by the new CEO, Bed Bath & Beyond plans to sell half its real estate assets, including its headquarters and an unknown number of its 1,500 stores, to a private equity firm, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.