Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

[ClownLoach]

Were they actually dumped, or was it more that they sold some of these off as they were doing better, and thus others were willing to buy them (where no one was interested in the BBB or BBB parts)?

Not sure as we don't have most of those locally, but the Christmas Tree Shops here always seems to be busy and has lots of stuff in it (save for a few empty shelves as they close out, say, the actual Christmas items), and there is usually a line of people waiting to check out (now that they set it up with a single line vs. separate registers).

I think they sold off Christmas Tree Shops at the same time they sold Cost Plus World Market.

My guess is they could not find a buyer for Buy Buy Baby who was willing to pay what they thought it was worth, and that is why they kept it. Now with their incompetent way of merchandising and running stores and a 20% comp sales drop the chain is probably not worth anything anymore.

Harmon is likely not worth anything to be sold to anyone.

I was surprised Christmas Tree was sold.

World Market I was not surprised was sold; and since being sold that asset looks like it is absolutely knocking it out of the park. For Christmas they did unbelievably well. Their stores had far more traffic than anticipated, they sold down on items, ran out of supplies like bags, and couldn't get rid of checkout lines no matter how hard they tried. All it took was restocking the stores with interesting items again. Not rocket science, but Bed Bath and Beyond ran that chain into the ground. Just think if Bed Bath and Beyond had kept it...

Apparently Christmas Tree Shops is thriving now that they are no longer under the thumb of the bumbling BB&B leadership.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenshou ... on-giving/

[ClownLoach]

Another good obituary: Bed Bath and Be Gone.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/ ... fdde4f6d00

[storewanderer]

Another good obituary: Bed Bath and Be Gone.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/ ... fdde4f6d00

The interview with the group who took Christmas Tree Stores is very telling. I think you could replace that with World Market and the exact same experience occurred.

What is going to be interesting is how the assets Bed Bath and Beyond thought were the worst and seemed to treat like the most unwanted, may end up being the only parts of the company that actually survive. I do not think Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, or Harmon Face Values will survive.

[ClownLoach]

Another good obituary: Bed Bath and Be Gone.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregpetro/ ... fdde4f6d00

The interview with the group who took Christmas Tree Stores is very telling. I think you could replace that with World Market and the exact same experience occurred.

What is going to be interesting is how the assets Bed Bath and Beyond thought were the worst and seemed to treat like the most unwanted, may end up being the only parts of the company that actually survive. I do not think Bed Bath & Beyond, Buy Buy Baby, or Harmon Face Values will survive.

If it is possible to free Buy Buy Baby and Harmon from the company, which I really don't think is feasible this late in the game due to the harm they have now endured, I think they could be rescued if the same folks who bought World Market took over. They have now gone through the process of fixing BB&B problems, they know what doesn't work and how to fix it, and because of that experience they may be able to correct those two chains faster than the World Market turnaround took. But I do not think that anyone else could be successful at this point. It took Kingswood about 18 months to get traction on the World Market turnaround. Based on the CTS story that is a similar timeline. The question is if they're interested or not. There are some areas where they may have been able to get some cost saving synergies being in the grocery business; there is a lot more World Market private label food now and it is better quality than in the past. As such they may not have as much interest in a different business like Harmon or Buy Buy Baby.

[storewanderer]

If it is possible to free Buy Buy Baby and Harmon from the company, which I really don't think is feasible this late in the game due to the harm they have now endured, I think they could be rescued if the same folks who bought World Market took over. They have now gone through the process of fixing BB&B problems, they know what doesn't work and how to fix it, and because of that experience they may be able to correct those two chains faster than the World Market turnaround took. But I do not think that anyone else could be successful at this point. It took Kingswood about 18 months to get traction on the World Market turnaround. Based on the CTS story that is a similar timeline. The question is if they're interested or not. There are some areas where they may have been able to get some cost saving synergies being in the grocery business; there is a lot more World Market private label food now and it is better quality than in the past. As such they may not have as much interest in a different business like Harmon or Buy Buy Baby.

The thing with Harmon is it is basically in my view not an asset that can stand on its own, in its current form. Too much of Harmon is tied to BBB/Baby. Harmon is handling the procurement of drug/HBA/consumable type items and this includes a fairly significant block of items in Baby like diapers. There are a few freestanding Harmon Stores (I think it is less than 50 stores total) but most of the Harmon units are departments within BBB Stores. Baby/Harmon use BBB systems and point of sale. CTS also used the BBB systems and point of sale. World Market was never integrated in with BBB from an IT perspective, it kept all of its old systems (and they are old).

Baby, again, after a 20% comp sales drop, I don't know if that can stand on its own either. But... maybe some private equity may take it on.

World Market did have a fair amount of private label food before COVID. The BBB management under the ex-Target guy treated World Market absolutely horribly. That could have bought that inept management team more time, but it still would not have prevented what has occurred here as their BBB strategy was not sound; if they had kept World Market open during COVID, which would have been fully legal given how much "essential" food and liquor they sell; it would have done so much in sales... also World Market would have had significantly higher valuation due to all of the extra sales it did during COVID and greater traffic momentum at the time of sale. But Kingswood has definitely made a giant climb upward for World Market the past six months, they have done significantly more than I thought was possible.

The question is also is there a synergy between World Market and Baby? I don't see the synergy.

I can see the synergy between Harmon, Baby, and/or BBB...

[rwsandiego]

I don't get Harmon and never have. Except for the few areas where their handful of stores are located, the Harmon brand is unknown. It's the HBA department at some BBBs. Not sure how much they could get for their 50-some stores. Bed Bath and Beyond should have renamed the business back when they bought it. Maybe Beauty and Beyond?

As for World Market, the new owners have done an excellent job bring back classic World Market merchandise. I think it took them as long as it did because they had to first build back their buying staff and contacts and then source merchandise that fits their traditional image.

[storewanderer]

I don't get Harmon and never have. Except for the few areas where their handful of stores are located, the Harmon brand is unknown. It's the HBA department at some BBBs. Not sure how much they could get for their 50-some stores. Bed Bath and Beyond should have renamed the business back when they bought it. Maybe Beauty and Beyond?

As for World Market, the new owners have done an excellent job bring back classic World Market merchandise. I think it took them as long as it did because they had to first build back their buying staff and contacts and then source merchandise that fits their traditional image.

This World Market is one of those curious examples where the previous ownership ran the thing so bad, and now this new ownership seems to be trying extra hard. Or maybe it was so bad under BBB, the new ownership looks like heroes and isn't really trying that hard... who knows. Waiting for them to work more magic on Save Mart. I have high confidence in the people they have put into leadership at Save Mart.

[BillyGr]

I don't get Harmon and never have. Except for the few areas where their handful of stores are located, the Harmon brand is unknown. It's the HBA department at some BBBs. Not sure how much they could get for their 50-some stores. Bed Bath and Beyond should have renamed the business back when they bought it. Maybe Beauty and Beyond?

As for World Market, the new owners have done an excellent job bring back classic World Market merchandise. I think it took them as long as it did because they had to first build back their buying staff and contacts and then source merchandise that fits their traditional image.

They also had the Harmon sections in Christmas Tree Shops (or at least our local one, but I think I went to one other - there aren't many that close). They sort of kept the section of HABA and similar items (or most of it) after they split, but not certain if they subcontract from BBB or are doing it themselves.
One thing that was interesting was that, when it was officially Harmon, they would take coupons (manufacturer) for those items, but not for anything else in the store (even though Christmas Tree has a fair section of food items and some household cleaners, which may have coupons from time to time).

[storewanderer]

They also had the Harmon sections in Christmas Tree Shops (or at least our local one, but I think I went to one other - there aren't many that close). They sort of kept the section of HABA and similar items (or most of it) after they split, but not certain if they subcontract from BBB or are doing it themselves.
One thing that was interesting was that, when it was officially Harmon, they would take coupons (manufacturer) for those items, but not for anything else in the store (even though Christmas Tree has a fair section of food items and some household cleaners, which may have coupons from time to time).

The household cleaners were sourced from Harmon and manufacturer coupons should have been accepted for those, in the case of Bed Bath and Beyond basically if they sell the item, they accept the manufacturer coupon for it. Some of that candy, etc. in Christmas Tree was actually being sourced through World Market. Bed Bath and Beyond does accept manufacturer coupons and the system is set up to scan them. I am not sure if World Market accepts coupons, so I wonder if that is where this policy came from. Christmas Tree used the same point of sale as Bed Bath and Beyond, so it is able to scan coupons.

Did you ever try to use a 20% off coupon on the food in Christmas Tree and see if it worked?

The 20% off coupons worked at Christmas Tree, Harmon, and BBB but not at World Market.

[rwsandiego]

This World Market is one of those curious examples where the previous ownership ran the thing so bad, and now this new ownership seems to be trying extra hard. Or maybe it was so bad under BBB, the new ownership looks like heroes and isn't really trying that hard... who knows. Waiting for them to work more magic on Save Mart. I have high confidence in the people they have put into leadership at Save Mart.

World Market was doing fine before BBB acquired them. In fact, they continued doing fine until BBB stopped letting them do their thing and tried to re-make them into Bed, Bath, and Market. The problem was aside from food, World Market stopped selling the items that made them World Market. Now that they are back to selling their traditional style of merchandise, they are doing well. It is hard to find the same type of merchandise with the same quality elsewhere.

Buy, Buy, Baby is different. It sells things that can easily be bought elsewhere. Not even sure why they exist.

PS: @storewanderer, want to clarify that I know when you said "previous ownership" you meant BBB not pre-BBB World Market