BBB in Chapter 11

[rwsandiego]

The Phoenix Business Journal reported that Crate and Barrel is opening a Crate and Barrel Outlet in a soon-to-be-former BBB location in Chandler. It is supposed to be the biggest C&B Outlet in the Southwest. I'd like to see a HomeGoods open in the BBB in Camelback Collonade, but the location might be too small.

I made one last order from the website yesterday...we'll see if it arrives.

Did you ever receive your order?

[storewanderer]

Tried to go to Reno BBB the other night but it closes at 7 PM on weeknights and 6 PM on weekends. Couldn't tell how much product is left looking in the windows. 40-60% off according to signs.

Usually when stores do liquidation sales at this stage in the sale, they keep their pre-liquidation hours or even extend hours to try to, you know, liquidate stuff as quickly as possible before the percentage goes too high. Sometimes as the percentage goes higher (and more employees leave) I have seen stores in liquidation cut hours back significantly.

BBB making zero sense how it does business right down to the end.

They should have just shut down entirely and given Big Lots, Ollies, etc. all of their merchandise to try to deal with. They can't even run a liquidation sale properly.

[rwsandiego]

Not sure about Reno, but my local BBB was open 'til 7:00 weeknights and 6:00 weekends even before the liquidation sale. They always had peculiar hours. I remember them closing at 8:30 weeknights when I lived in San Diego. Eventually, they expanded their hours to 9:00 PM.

[storewanderer]

Not sure about Reno, but my local BBB was open 'til 7:00 weeknights and 6:00 weekends even before the liquidation sale. They always had peculiar hours. I remember them closing at 8:30 weeknights when I lived in San Diego. Eventually, they expanded their hours to 9:00 PM.

Interesting. Reno was open until 8 PM right before the liquidation started. Before the COVID closures it was open until 10 PM for decades (same for Sparks).

[Romr123]

The Phoenix Business Journal reported that Crate and Barrel is opening a Crate and Barrel Outlet in a soon-to-be-former BBB location in Chandler. It is supposed to be the biggest C&B Outlet in the Southwest. I'd like to see a HomeGoods open in the BBB in Camelback Collonade, but the location might be too small.

I made one last order from the website yesterday...we'll see if it arrives.

Did you ever receive your order?

yes, arrived without incident. Came from a couple different stores.

[storewanderer]

Was finally able to get to BBB during its limited hours.

The store is currently more stocked today than it has been in months. The liquidators have sent in all kinds of weird random generic merchandise to supplement the liquidation sale.

There isn't much BBB product left and less branded product than ever.

The signs said 40-70% off but the only thing I saw 70% off was some Christmas decorations; everything else seemed to be 40% off.

They are doing fixture sales with laughably bad prices. $100 plastic shopping cart. $3 roll of paper towels (generic ones from Dollar Tree or something).

I thought they close for good on June 30 but I don't think that is happening here. Way too much junk product sent in by the liquidator. They have a legal notice on the front door that the sale has been augmented with non-BBB merchandise and a photo of the liquidator barcodes on those items that all say AUG in the top right corner. These are familiar barcodes from Sears/Kmart liquidations and also Stein Mart and Stage Stores.

[ClownLoach]

Tried to go to Reno BBB the other night but it closes at 7 PM on weeknights and 6 PM on weekends. Couldn't tell how much product is left looking in the windows. 40-60% off according to signs.

Usually when stores do liquidation sales at this stage in the sale, they keep their pre-liquidation hours or even extend hours to try to, you know, liquidate stuff as quickly as possible before the percentage goes too high. Sometimes as the percentage goes higher (and more employees leave) I have seen stores in liquidation cut hours back significantly.

BBB making zero sense how it does business right down to the end.

They should have just shut down entirely and given Big Lots, Ollies, etc. all of their merchandise to try to deal with. They can't even run a liquidation sale properly.

I think this stems from the fact that BB&B mistreated so many of their employees all the way to bankruptcy, which led to a mass exodus of staff. Screwing people out of their 401K match, sick pay and vacation, and of course failing to pay out agreed upon severance. I can't think of a case where the employer has so thoroughly crapped on their employees in such a time of need. As an employee why would you stick around working for a company that treats you so poorly while working in an empty store where the air conditioning has been turned off to save money and no one has picked up the garbage in weeks? Heck there were many employees commenting the overhead music box on the PA was remotely shut off because the vendor wasn't paid. This is possibly one of the sleaziest shutdowns ever in the retail industry.

Nobody is going to look for a job at a Going Out of Business sale, so the liquidators were stuck with the skeleton crews that were running these stores and the availability/terms they were working under. It isn't like the past where they would run huge full page newspaper ads that included a hiring hotline where a third party would pretty much do a basic background check and see if the person had a pulse then tell them to report to work immediately for minimum wage.

I firmly believe that BB&B could have survived if it wasn't for the mismanagement of Tritton, and then the nonmanagement of the remaining execs that didn't really take any meaningful actions to right the ship. There is a calling for this product, and they could have made appropriate changes to modernize the business model, product line, and customer experience without the JCPenney-Ron Johnson style flip under Tritton.

I expect the Canadian relaunch by the former management of that division to go well (obviously lots of demand for heavy blankets and insulating curtains and such). They are already leasing the best performing locations and have branded as "Rooms and Spaces" - interestingly enough they're under the same management as Toys R Us Canada and have a shared website. Toys is doing just fine up there... I wonder if they'll stay in Canada or consider expanding to the US once issues of unfavorable exchange rates resolve.

[storewanderer]

When I went into the Reno unit on Friday afternoon early afternoon I only saw 3 employees in the entire store. But someone did a lot of work getting the fixture sale set up, tagged, etc. Someone also did a lot of work getting all this new merchandise stocked. The store was generally neat and organized. It also looked clean. The checkout area had a line of maybe 10 customers for the 2 open registers (cannot believe people are buying..) but was moving very slow. I recognized both employees running the checkout, they have worked at the store for many years. The one on the floor who was arranging merchandise was not an employee I had seen before.

I didn't even see any signs advertising for temp help at any of these BBB store closing sales. The Sparks unit that closed last year was actually rather well staffed while it was closing. Carson City that closed a few months ago ran on a skeleton crew until 6 PM.

Have we heard when they plan to close? It obviously isn't June 30.

Overstock.com is reportedly buying the IP for BBB but Baby is going through a different sale process.

[rwsandiego]

The Camelback Colonnade store in Phoenix closed Sunday (6/25). The store had no merchandise other than handbaskets of miscellaneous junk for $5, including the basket. It I didn't already have plenty of baskets and organizers I'd have bought a couple and donated the junk, but I am trying to get rid of stuff, not acquire more.

I don't know whether any other Phoenix-area stores are still open. I intended to stop in to the one on Mayo Blvd in North Scottsdale, but there was too much traffic to cross the street into the parking lot, so I just left.

[storewanderer]

Reno unit still has signs up that say new merchandise arriving daily, 40-70% off as of today still.

They must be planning on keeping this one going longer. Maybe I'm completely wrong here.

Or just really stubborn until the last second. I guess I need to keep my eye on the place 6/30... from everything I can tell that is supposed to be the last closing day for every store in the chain.