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

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

Post by rwsandiego »

ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 10:20 am I was intrigued by the investment by Hudson Bay. If you have ever seen one of their department stores in Canada you could see a potential fit with BB&B, as long as they could ship products to the US. Their stores are stacked to the rafters with bed in a bag sets, linens, towels, kitchen stuff, and luggage. None of which looks like it is anything better than what you would expect to find at Ross or Marshall's, but they probably have warehouses completely full of this junk. The downtown Montréal flagship store spans multiple city blocks and has at least 4 floors of this merchandise. This store literally has direct entrance to the Metro subway! You could fill dozens of BB&B sales floors just from this one store and apparently the building has massive stockrooms. One entire floor is just luggage and a mothballed cafeteria. If they could somehow force BB&B to pay cash for all of this junk and get approval to ship it to the USA they could unburden themselves of it and then it all gets sold in the liquidation. It's probably going to deliver a better return than letting that stuff sit unsold. I think Canadian pricing laws prevent them from having a proper blowout sale to get rid of all that stuff. Interestingly enough the Hudson Bay stores in Canada have all the same "house brands" in home as Macy's in the US. "Tools of the Trade" and "Hotel Collection" are in the stores there. Maybe Canada tax laws would allow them to write off the loss on the investment and the inventory? The money invested, minus the money returned by BB&B in exchange for the ridiculous oversupply of product, maybe a deal with the liquidators to deliver some return on that inventory? Might not be a bad deal to get cash for literal tons and tons of unsold goods they can't sell in Canada. And they have been trying to make deals for that massive Montréal building (I think this store could easily be 500K Sq ft) and other urban downtown stores they own to downsize retail footage dramatically and build high rise apartments, condos, or offices on top. Liquidating all the hundreds of millions of dollars in unproductive inventory they own across Canada would help with these development deals they're trying to put together.

BBB received its capital infusion from Hudson Bay Capital Management, LP a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, CT. It was founded in 2005 by its CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Sandy Gerber. It isn't related to Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department store.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

rwsandiego wrote: February 11th, 2023, 1:31 pm
ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 10:20 am I was intrigued by the investment by Hudson Bay. If you have ever seen one of their department stores in Canada you could see a potential fit with BB&B, as long as they could ship products to the US. Their stores are stacked to the rafters with bed in a bag sets, linens, towels, kitchen stuff, and luggage. None of which looks like it is anything better than what you would expect to find at Ross or Marshall's, but they probably have warehouses completely full of this junk. The downtown Montréal flagship store spans multiple city blocks and has at least 4 floors of this merchandise. This store literally has direct entrance to the Metro subway! You could fill dozens of BB&B sales floors just from this one store and apparently the building has massive stockrooms. One entire floor is just luggage and a mothballed cafeteria. If they could somehow force BB&B to pay cash for all of this junk and get approval to ship it to the USA they could unburden themselves of it and then it all gets sold in the liquidation. It's probably going to deliver a better return than letting that stuff sit unsold. I think Canadian pricing laws prevent them from having a proper blowout sale to get rid of all that stuff. Interestingly enough the Hudson Bay stores in Canada have all the same "house brands" in home as Macy's in the US. "Tools of the Trade" and "Hotel Collection" are in the stores there. Maybe Canada tax laws would allow them to write off the loss on the investment and the inventory? The money invested, minus the money returned by BB&B in exchange for the ridiculous oversupply of product, maybe a deal with the liquidators to deliver some return on that inventory? Might not be a bad deal to get cash for literal tons and tons of unsold goods they can't sell in Canada. And they have been trying to make deals for that massive Montréal building (I think this store could easily be 500K Sq ft) and other urban downtown stores they own to downsize retail footage dramatically and build high rise apartments, condos, or offices on top. Liquidating all the hundreds of millions of dollars in unproductive inventory they own across Canada would help with these development deals they're trying to put together.

BBB received its capital infusion from Hudson Bay Capital Management, LP a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, CT. It was founded in 2005 by its CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Sandy Gerber. It isn't related to Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department store.
You are correct and I fell for some bad reporting that literally showed a picture of a Hudson's Bay store. But if it was them, wouldn't that be interesting?

MODS please flag my prior comment which I edited and this for deletion.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: February 11th, 2023, 1:31 pm
ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 10:20 am I was intrigued by the investment by Hudson Bay. If you have ever seen one of their department stores in Canada you could see a potential fit with BB&B, as long as they could ship products to the US. Their stores are stacked to the rafters with bed in a bag sets, linens, towels, kitchen stuff, and luggage. None of which looks like it is anything better than what you would expect to find at Ross or Marshall's, but they probably have warehouses completely full of this junk. The downtown Montréal flagship store spans multiple city blocks and has at least 4 floors of this merchandise. This store literally has direct entrance to the Metro subway! You could fill dozens of BB&B sales floors just from this one store and apparently the building has massive stockrooms. One entire floor is just luggage and a mothballed cafeteria. If they could somehow force BB&B to pay cash for all of this junk and get approval to ship it to the USA they could unburden themselves of it and then it all gets sold in the liquidation. It's probably going to deliver a better return than letting that stuff sit unsold. I think Canadian pricing laws prevent them from having a proper blowout sale to get rid of all that stuff. Interestingly enough the Hudson Bay stores in Canada have all the same "house brands" in home as Macy's in the US. "Tools of the Trade" and "Hotel Collection" are in the stores there. Maybe Canada tax laws would allow them to write off the loss on the investment and the inventory? The money invested, minus the money returned by BB&B in exchange for the ridiculous oversupply of product, maybe a deal with the liquidators to deliver some return on that inventory? Might not be a bad deal to get cash for literal tons and tons of unsold goods they can't sell in Canada. And they have been trying to make deals for that massive Montréal building (I think this store could easily be 500K Sq ft) and other urban downtown stores they own to downsize retail footage dramatically and build high rise apartments, condos, or offices on top. Liquidating all the hundreds of millions of dollars in unproductive inventory they own across Canada would help with these development deals they're trying to put together.

BBB received its capital infusion from Hudson Bay Capital Management, LP a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, CT. It was founded in 2005 by its CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Sandy Gerber. It isn't related to Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department store.
I saw news articles last week that said it was the Canadian Retailer... what a mess the news reporting has become.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: February 11th, 2023, 7:46 pm
rwsandiego wrote: February 11th, 2023, 1:31 pm
ClownLoach wrote: February 11th, 2023, 10:20 am I was intrigued by the investment by Hudson Bay. If you have ever seen one of their department stores in Canada you could see a potential fit with BB&B, as long as they could ship products to the US. Their stores are stacked to the rafters with bed in a bag sets, linens, towels, kitchen stuff, and luggage. None of which looks like it is anything better than what you would expect to find at Ross or Marshall's, but they probably have warehouses completely full of this junk. The downtown Montréal flagship store spans multiple city blocks and has at least 4 floors of this merchandise. This store literally has direct entrance to the Metro subway! You could fill dozens of BB&B sales floors just from this one store and apparently the building has massive stockrooms. One entire floor is just luggage and a mothballed cafeteria. If they could somehow force BB&B to pay cash for all of this junk and get approval to ship it to the USA they could unburden themselves of it and then it all gets sold in the liquidation. It's probably going to deliver a better return than letting that stuff sit unsold. I think Canadian pricing laws prevent them from having a proper blowout sale to get rid of all that stuff. Interestingly enough the Hudson Bay stores in Canada have all the same "house brands" in home as Macy's in the US. "Tools of the Trade" and "Hotel Collection" are in the stores there. Maybe Canada tax laws would allow them to write off the loss on the investment and the inventory? The money invested, minus the money returned by BB&B in exchange for the ridiculous oversupply of product, maybe a deal with the liquidators to deliver some return on that inventory? Might not be a bad deal to get cash for literal tons and tons of unsold goods they can't sell in Canada. And they have been trying to make deals for that massive Montréal building (I think this store could easily be 500K Sq ft) and other urban downtown stores they own to downsize retail footage dramatically and build high rise apartments, condos, or offices on top. Liquidating all the hundreds of millions of dollars in unproductive inventory they own across Canada would help with these development deals they're trying to put together.

BBB received its capital infusion from Hudson Bay Capital Management, LP a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, CT. It was founded in 2005 by its CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Sandy Gerber. It isn't related to Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department store.
I saw news articles last week that said it was the Canadian Retailer... what a mess the news reporting has become.
Thanks. I knew I wasn't the only one that saw incorrect reporting.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by rwsandiego »

ClownLoach wrote: February 12th, 2023, 12:11 am
storewanderer wrote: February 11th, 2023, 7:46 pm
rwsandiego wrote: February 11th, 2023, 1:31 pm


BBB received its capital infusion from Hudson Bay Capital Management, LP a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, CT. It was founded in 2005 by its CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Sandy Gerber. It isn't related to Hudson's Bay, the Canadian department store.
I saw news articles last week that said it was the Canadian Retailer... what a mess the news reporting has become.
Thanks. I knew I wasn't the only one that saw incorrect reporting.
When I saw the name of the investor I thought it was the department store, but read more closely and realized it was a different firm with a different name.

I stopped into the local BBB today and, surprisingly, found all but two items I was looking for. The two items were Sodastream cylinders and bottles. They had a decent supply of machines, but the cylinder/bottle display was empty.

There were only a few customers in the store. Just a few years ago the place would be busy on a Sunday. Although it is a little depressing, it is nice not to wait in line.

I'd like to think a capital infusion that's used to pay off debt will assist them in regaining their footing but I don't think it will.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

It is my understanding that all of the money raised from the Hudson Bay maneuver, was used to pay the default to JP Morgan Chase. Now more funding is reportedly on the way from Hudson Bay but that funding is dependent on the share price staying up.

I went into the Reno Store and I think it may have a little more inventory than a few days ago. There were definitely some branded pan sets I did not see before, and there appear to be a few more towels as well. There is still a ton of empty space, blue fabric covering shelves down at floor level, etc, all over the store. However I might be getting tricked. They have moved Christmas items into various empty spaces throughout the store (which were previously up front)- Christmas items are currently 70% off and it is February 12 today.

What was also interesting is despite the store having only 3 other customers, I counted 7 employees in the store, mostly standing around bored talking/doing nothing. I have no clue why they would staff so heavily on Super Bowl. World Market was also quite deserted, but only had 2 employees, certainly more appropriate staffing for Super Bowl.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: February 12th, 2023, 7:29 pm What was also interesting is despite the store having only 3 other customers, I counted 7 employees in the store, mostly standing around bored talking/doing nothing. I have no clue why they would staff so heavily on Super Bowl. World Market was also quite deserted, but only had 2 employees, certainly more appropriate staffing for Super Bowl.
Perhaps it just depends on who is in charge of staffing?
After all, while many people may not be thinking of shopping on that day, there are others who may not even know (or care) that there is a football game going on.
If one of those people is the one running it, they are just staffing the way they would any Sunday :).
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

Rumors are going around of another wave of store closures being imminent. The number is another 150 stores which would leave the chain with only around 200. At that point over 80% of the stores have closed and even large metro areas like San Diego County could be left with just one store. They might as well just wind down the whole thing at this point because no rational customer is going to drive past ten Targets, five Walmarts, five Costcos, a couple Sam's, Macy's and JCPenney selling the same stuff to go to BB&B instead. They are going to be too small to be relevant other than as a neighborhood store that will never grow a lasting customer base other than in a three mile radius or so.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

I heard 9-10 days ago 150 more stores were closing. Is there a list?

Or is this 150 you are talking about that same 150?

I also heard they have moved up the timeline on stores currently in liquidation to shut down. There is a lack of merchandise. The liquidation firms are having to supplement with a lot of their own merchandise to keep customers even interested in the liquidation sales. A lot of the stuff the liquidators are bringing in are the weird things Kmart used to sell in 2021-2022 in weird brands nobody ever heard of like Home Basics or Bradshaw or other very odd random brands.

This chain will need to rebrand if it plans to stay in business based on the way it has been dragged through the mud for the past couple years. Liquidators bringing in random weird off brand stuff isn't helping. In that regard they were better self liquidating.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by Romr123 »

Just made another order--this time only coming in 2 shipments, one from Salt Lake City, other from ???. Trolling the clearance merchandise--still finding a few things, and they seem to be moving things into that category. Still not very sustainable.
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