Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

[mbz321]

Hilco is giving BBB more money to stay afloat a little while longer https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/bed-bat ... eline.html Maybe their strategy is to fill the stores up with merchandise then announce liquidation?

[ClownLoach]

Hilco is giving BBB more money to stay afloat a little while longer https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/05/bed-bat ... eline.html Maybe their strategy is to fill the stores up with merchandise then announce liquidation?

At least Hilco can save some time and get into the stores now so they're ready for the inevitable liquidation. I wonder if Hilco will pay the trash bills?

[storewanderer]

One trick out of the hat after another.

I can't wait to see what the next trick is.

Wouldn't it be funny if this is actually Hilco just stocking the stores so they can do a successful liquidation of what is left and somehow the management team thinks this is a lifeline toward recovery?

Given their tract record I don't think them being that far "off" is out of the question...

[storewanderer]

Was able to walk BBB and Baby in Roseville this week.

VERY surprised. The Baby Store had moderate traffic and was actually well stocked. It was by no means overstocked but it felt full enough. No empty awkward spaces. It had quite a few employees. Noticed at checkout the plastic bags they were using were those "THANK YOU" bags from Sam's Club or Amazon or someone. There was some customer traffic in this place.

The BBB directly next door again I am very shocked but this store was fully stocked. This is also a giant BBB. The customer service desk (across entry from front end) had signs saying it was closed and to go to checkout for returns or pick ups. Many shelves have been lowered. There were some empty spots in certain departments but you really had to look for them. No self checkout but they moved to a checkout counter against the front wall type set up. The store has way too much open space in the walkways, etc. The displays were neat and organized and the store felt pretty healthy. Except, it only had a few other shoppers and I only saw ONE employee in the entire store.

As far as maintenance goes both stores were clean, all of the lights were on, etc. Very surprising.

[rwsandiego]

Was able to walk BBB and Baby in Roseville this week.

VERY surprised. The Baby Store had moderate traffic and was actually well stocked. It was by no means overstocked but it felt full enough. No empty awkward spaces. It had quite a few employees. Noticed at checkout the plastic bags they were using were those "THANK YOU" bags from Sam's Club or Amazon or someone. There was some customer traffic in this place.

The BBB directly next door again I am very shocked but this store was fully stocked. This is also a giant BBB. The customer service desk (across entry from front end) had signs saying it was closed and to go to checkout for returns or pick ups. Many shelves have been lowered. There were some empty spots in certain departments but you really had to look for them. No self checkout but they moved to a checkout counter against the front wall type set up. The store has way too much open space in the walkways, etc. The displays were neat and organized and the store felt pretty healthy. Except, it only had a few other shoppers and I only saw ONE employee in the entire store.

As far as maintenance goes both stores were clean, all of the lights were on, etc. Very surprising.

I'm not all that surprised, as your experience mirrors mine at their Phoenix stores. They are buying merchandise and seemingly investing what they can in the remaining stores. Every retail chain doesn't have to operate 1,000+ stores. Perhaps if they can operate a smaller store base (and cut ongoing expenses in the process) they focus on rebuilding the chain and pivot themselves to where they were just a few years ago, Unlike Kohl's, it appears they want to attract the customers who used to shop there.

It seems as though their leadership wants to remain a going concern. I hope they succeed.

[storewanderer]

I'm not all that surprised, as your experience mirrors mine at their Phoenix stores. They are buying merchandise and seemingly investing what they can in the remaining stores. Every retail chain doesn't have to operate 1,000+ stores. Perhaps if they can operate a smaller store base (and cut ongoing expenses in the process) they focus on rebuilding the chain and pivot themselves to where they were just a few years ago, Unlike Kohl's, it appears they want to attract the customers who used to shop there.

It seems as though their leadership wants to remain a going concern. I hope they succeed.

They seem to be selecting certain stores to focus on which given limited resources is the best they can do. The part that was most troubling was the lack of customers (and employees) in the store. Without customer traffic there is no hope for them. I don't know how they can get their customers back, it will take money to do that, and take some margin loss they likely cannot afford to take, to draw customers back in. The mix still isn't close to what it was in the past (it is closer than it was the past couple years though) either which may be a problem.

I think new ownership and an infusion of funding is necessary.

[ClownLoach]

Was able to walk BBB and Baby in Roseville this week.

VERY surprised. The Baby Store had moderate traffic and was actually well stocked. It was by no means overstocked but it felt full enough. No empty awkward spaces. It had quite a few employees. Noticed at checkout the plastic bags they were using were those "THANK YOU" bags from Sam's Club or Amazon or someone. There was some customer traffic in this place.

The BBB directly next door again I am very shocked but this store was fully stocked. This is also a giant BBB. The customer service desk (across entry from front end) had signs saying it was closed and to go to checkout for returns or pick ups. Many shelves have been lowered. There were some empty spots in certain departments but you really had to look for them. No self checkout but they moved to a checkout counter against the front wall type set up. The store has way too much open space in the walkways, etc. The displays were neat and organized and the store felt pretty healthy. Except, it only had a few other shoppers and I only saw ONE employee in the entire store.

As far as maintenance goes both stores were clean, all of the lights were on, etc. Very surprising.

I have a different opinion. What they did near me is remove a great number of the short gondolas, everything from the racetrack, and basically put the product back on the walls that were empty for months. Kohl's and BB&B until now had the same strategy - pull the product off the walls and mass it around the racetrack to give the impression of being in stock - plus traditionally racetrack stacks used to deliver higher sell through similar to endcaps. To any of us with retail experience we see right through it. Now someone obviously advised BB&B to stop junking up the racetrack while leaving those bare walls. Ironically by removing all the fixtures that should have gone away years ago anyway they create the illusion that the store has been restocked when it hasn't. My guess is that the Hilco folks told them to do this as it matches their merchandising strategy for liquidation sales - spread out the merchandise in the most visually impactful manner and make room for lots of customers.

I absolutely believe that the concept is viable but only if taken over by a entity such as the one that acquired World Market, someone with the deep pockets needed to revitalize the chain. And when this happens step one is a full termination of the entire corporate office from top to bottom, without severance (since the line level employees didn't get any). I do not believe that any product is being purchased for the BB&B stores except for what they can get on low margin consignment deals, and the only place they spend any money is product for the more profitable baby stores. Unfortunately we are more than 9 months past the start of their company crisis so we can expect to see the baby business crash like the parent company. Expecting families have been walking into these problematic stores once and not again now, so the remaining families that had registries etc. are now basically done shopping there. The baby departments at Target have never been stacked higher with product and it is selling. They are absorbing this business.

The problem is that the entrenched executives have all set up Golden parachute plans for themselves and they have no intention of leaving. As a result they will see the company all the way to the grave versus face up to the fact that they all failed at their responsibility to their customers, employees, vendors and shareholders with this self serving effort to loot the company.

[rwsandiego]

...The problem is that the entrenched executives have all set up Golden parachute plans for themselves and they have no intention of leaving. As a result they will see the company all the way to the grave versus face up to the fact that they all failed at their responsibility to their customers, employees, vendors and shareholders with this self serving effort to loot the company.

I wouldn't call the executive leadership team entrenched, as they have all joined the company within the last two and a half years. Here is the current lineup:

• Sue Gove, CEO, joined BBB in October, 2022

• Holly Etlin, Interim CFO, joined BBB in February, 2023

• David Kastin, CLO, joined BBB in December, 2022

• Scott Lindblom, CTO, September, 2020

• Lynda Markoe, Chief People/Culture Officer, joined BBB in July, 2020

• Bart Sichel, Chief Marketing and Customer Service Officer, joined BBB in November, 2022

• Mara Sirhal, Brand President - BBB, moved into the role from Harmon in November, 2022 and joined Harmon in January, 2021

• Patty Wu, Brand President - Buy Buy Baby, joined in January, 2021

The current management team appears to be doing better than the previous team (I'm looking at you, Mark Tritton). BBB needs an investor who will hold the company for a year or two, provide financing to buy inventory, and refinance debt.

[Romr123]

I've been necrophiliacly (!) shopping their online clearance...they seem to be rotating through stocks reasonably well (what you see today -isn't- what you saw two weeks ago). I'd have thought they'd been done, but a couple orders have gone through fine and been fulfilled reasonably (one mug was broken but was reasonably well packed, and a lamp was poorly packed and broken, but I was able to exchange at the store in Palm Springs).

[storewanderer]

I have a different opinion. What they did near me is remove a great number of the short gondolas, everything from the racetrack, and basically put the product back on the walls that were empty for months. Kohl's and BB&B until now had the same strategy - pull the product off the walls and mass it around the racetrack to give the impression of being in stock - plus traditionally racetrack stacks used to deliver higher sell through similar to endcaps. To any of us with retail experience we see right through it. Now someone obviously advised BB&B to stop junking up the racetrack while leaving those bare walls. Ironically by removing all the fixtures that should have gone away years ago anyway they create the illusion that the store has been restocked when it hasn't. My guess is that the Hilco folks told them to do this as it matches their merchandising strategy for liquidation sales - spread out the merchandise in the most visually impactful manner and make room for lots of customers.

I absolutely believe that the concept is viable but only if taken over by a entity such as the one that acquired World Market, someone with the deep pockets needed to revitalize the chain. And when this happens step one is a full termination of the entire corporate office from top to bottom, without severance (since the line level employees didn't get any). I do not believe that any product is being purchased for the BB&B stores except for what they can get on low margin consignment deals, and the only place they spend any money is product for the more profitable baby stores. Unfortunately we are more than 9 months past the start of their company crisis so we can expect to see the baby business crash like the parent company. Expecting families have been walking into these problematic stores once and not again now, so the remaining families that had registries etc. are now basically done shopping there. The baby departments at Target have never been stacked higher with product and it is selling. They are absorbing this business.

The problem is that the entrenched executives have all set up Golden parachute plans for themselves and they have no intention of leaving. As a result they will see the company all the way to the grave versus face up to the fact that they all failed at their responsibility to their customers, employees, vendors and shareholders with this self serving effort to loot the company.

I think some of the current management team came off the Board of Directors. I'd like to see them re-assemble some of what they had pre-Target guy but I don't think they are in a position to recruit and at this point the best people from that era are probably long retired in Florida and don't want to go back to New Jersey and run a significantly damaged/downsized chain.

What is weird is the Reno unit still has merchandise throughout the racetrack. Various alcoves have many empty spaces. In Roseville that racetrack was entirely empty.

But there is definitely some restocking occurring. It is more than just rearranging and fake filling. There is still too much private label product but it feels like about half of the store at this point as opposed to the whole store. I saw significantly more branded items in bedding (not just Ugg) and kitchen electrics and some higher ticket items.

Still the way I am seeing virtually no customers buying stuff in these stores pretty much speaks for itself despite if I saw what I thought was a good looking store, the ultimate judge is the cash register, which was idle on a Saturday afternoon in a giant store with one employee.