Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

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rwsandiego
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by rwsandiego »

mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...Not everyone needs a $250 sheet...
And if you want a $250 sheet set you don't buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because the quality is not the same as the $250 sets you can buy at Macy's, Dillards, or Bloomingdale's. It is Target quality (which is perfectly fine) at more than double the price (which isn't perfectly fine). If you catch a good sale at Macy's you can find the $250 sheet sets for under $100. That doesn't happen at BBB.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...And not everyone functions in the world of high end kitchen gadgets either...
I pretty much buy Good Grips and only Good Grips, which BBB sells. However, I can get them at Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel for the same price or less and have a much nicer shopping experience.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...It amazes me when companies make up reasons for you *not* to shop there. Someone ought to write a book about all the crazy ideas that cause consumers to shop elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend in San Diego about BBB. There's a very large one at Mission Valley Center. He had a expiring coupon and commented that five years ago he could always find something to buy there. Now, it seems like expensive junk. They are suffering from the same thing that ails department stores - they aren't fun to shop anymore and they sell merchandise that nobody wants to buy.
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm It amazes me when companies make up reasons for you *not* to shop there.
Sounds quite similar to a one time retail behemouth that is now at death's door. What's going on-did they hire Eddie Lampert or something? And about the phone number, I would've entered 867-5309 just to be smart and see if they pick up on it. :mrgreen: (My apologies to those who are unfamiliar with early 80's music for that reference.)
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by Super S »

rwsandiego wrote: June 1st, 2021, 12:36 am
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...Not everyone needs a $250 sheet...
And if you want a $250 sheet set you don't buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because the quality is not the same as the $250 sets you can buy at Macy's, Dillards, or Bloomingdale's. It is Target quality (which is perfectly fine) at more than double the price (which isn't perfectly fine). If you catch a good sale at Macy's you can find the $250 sheet sets for under $100. That doesn't happen at BBB.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...And not everyone functions in the world of high end kitchen gadgets either...
I pretty much buy Good Grips and only Good Grips, which BBB sells. However, I can get them at Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel for the same price or less and have a much nicer shopping experience.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...It amazes me when companies make up reasons for you *not* to shop there. Someone ought to write a book about all the crazy ideas that cause consumers to shop elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend in San Diego about BBB. There's a very large one at Mission Valley Center. He had a expiring coupon and commented that five years ago he could always find something to buy there. Now, it seems like expensive junk. They are suffering from the same thing that ails department stores - they aren't fun to shop anymore and they sell merchandise that nobody wants to buy.
Part of the problem here is the simple fact that people are figuring out that many products come from the same places overseas, but in different packaging. Some chains such as Macy's add brand names to try to justify higher prices. Target even does this to some extent. The point I am making is that it's hard to justify paying extra for a brand name when the quality in the real world is not much better. It's certainly hard to justify paying $200 for a set of sheets that sells for $50 somewhere else and looks nearly identical.

As for entering a phone number...a fancy way of a loyalty club program....it's interesting how many struggling retailers seem to adapt this gimmick with mixed results. Then you have stores like Macy's and JCPenney which rely heavily on coupons, shopping passes, etc. Stores are not fun to visit when you have to figure out what gimmick is needed to pay a reasonable price. JCPenney did try a simpler approach under Ron Johnson, but people actually are conditioned to believe that these loyalty programs and coupons actually save them money.

I sometimes have to wonder if we would have so many people flocking to Amazon and other online retailers if physical stores didn't require so many gimmicks.
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by veteran+ »

rwsandiego wrote: June 1st, 2021, 12:36 am
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...Not everyone needs a $250 sheet...
And if you want a $250 sheet set you don't buy it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because the quality is not the same as the $250 sets you can buy at Macy's, Dillards, or Bloomingdale's. It is Target quality (which is perfectly fine) at more than double the price (which isn't perfectly fine). If you catch a good sale at Macy's you can find the $250 sheet sets for under $100. That doesn't happen at BBB.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...And not everyone functions in the world of high end kitchen gadgets either...
I pretty much buy Good Grips and only Good Grips, which BBB sells. However, I can get them at Williams-Sonoma or Crate and Barrel for the same price or less and have a much nicer shopping experience.
mjhale wrote: May 31st, 2021, 9:06 pm...It amazes me when companies make up reasons for you *not* to shop there. Someone ought to write a book about all the crazy ideas that cause consumers to shop elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago I was talking to a friend in San Diego about BBB. There's a very large one at Mission Valley Center. He had a expiring coupon and commented that five years ago he could always find something to buy there. Now, it seems like expensive junk. They are suffering from the same thing that ails department stores - they aren't fun to shop anymore and they sell merchandise that nobody wants to buy.
Yup!

Tried to shop there several times!

Over priced junk and very narrow styling choices (banal and milquetoast).
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by luckysaver »

BBB also owns Harmon Face Values (a no-frills drugstore without a service pharmacy department and clinical health & wellness services). Most HFV merchandise is also sold at BBB stores and website. There are only 2 locations in the Los Angeles area (in West LA on Pico Blvd across from Westside Pavilion and in Pasadena's Hastings Ranch next door to Ralphs) and the rest of HFV is out-of-state. Very simple layout for merchandise - snack foods/candy, travel & trial size, cosmetics, and toiletries along the walls, and about 12-14 aisles of other related cosmetics/beauty supplies, shaving supplies, first aid, OTC meds, and other health products. Prices are comparable to the big 3 (Rite Aid/CVS/Walgreens) but they don't get the foot traffic of the traditional drugstores because they lack a pharmacy. I don't think they're doing well since several BBBs shuttered in the Los Angeles area. HFV might survive if they get into the pharmacy business but it appears they are not even interested in having in-store pharmacies any time soon.

Bottom line, BBB and HFV are both dying for sure.
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by ClownLoach »

luckysaver wrote: January 24th, 2022, 3:15 am BBB also owns Harmon Face Values (a no-frills drugstore without a service pharmacy department and clinical health & wellness services). Most HFV merchandise is also sold at BBB stores and website. There are only 2 locations in the Los Angeles area (in West LA on Pico Blvd across from Westside Pavilion and in Pasadena's Hastings Ranch next door to Ralphs) and the rest of HFV is out-of-state. Very simple layout for merchandise - snack foods/candy, travel & trial size, cosmetics, and toiletries along the walls, and about 12-14 aisles of other related cosmetics/beauty supplies, shaving supplies, first aid, OTC meds, and other health products. Prices are comparable to the big 3 (Rite Aid/CVS/Walgreens) but they don't get the foot traffic of the traditional drugstores because they lack a pharmacy. I don't think they're doing well since several BBBs shuttered in the Los Angeles area. HFV might survive if they get into the pharmacy business but it appears they are not even interested in having in-store pharmacies any time soon.

Bottom line, BBB and HFV are both dying for sure.
This was called out on a different thread - but at least one BB&B "remodeled" (using that phrase very loosely) to the new format is already closing in Irvine, not even 90 days after the grand reopening. This store has a new format for the Harmon department. They gave HFV even better placement - on the racetrack across from checkout - new fixtures and signage and eliminated all of the Harmon branding. Clearly it didn't work out. But when you say that you're spending over half a million per store to "convert" half your chain to the "new format" - and close a store that just received that investment one quarter later - it is a sign that they are in big trouble and desperate for cash to stay alive.

I still think 95% of the half million investment on this "new format" is the markdown expense of eliminating most of the old, stale, and expensive merchandise. Then they replace it with Walmart quality junk that is a quarter of the price, and hang cheap looking purple signage. The $250 sheet sets mentioned above are gone, but replaced by $40-$60 sheet sets that are generic and bland colors. It's going to take a lot of those $40 sheet sets to make up for the sales revenue from one $250 set even after a coupon is used on it (because nobody shops BB&B without a coupon which shows they have zero ability to establish the value of their merchandise to their customers).

The failure point is that Wall Street is demanding positive comps - they're replacing their core product lines with cheap stuff that is a quarter of the price of the original lines - but they have no strategy to get more customers in to make up for the price differences. It seems most departments in the store would require two to three times as many paying customers as they had before to break even on a comp basis - and if you're selling more units than before that means more labor to stock shelves and ring transactions - deleveraging the P&L.

I don't see how they make it to Christmas season 2022 without going bankrupt.

They don't have the best products.
They don't have the best prices.
They don't have the best service.
They don't have the best store environment.
They don't have the best locations (if anything the average customer will drive past multiple better run competitors before they even find a BB&B that has survived the last few rounds of closings).

There is no reason for the customer to shop there over Walmart, Target, Macy's, or WILLIAMS-SONOMA family of brands. I would say that each of those brands represents a "tier" of product BB&B sells. Lowest tier (the majority of the store now) is Walmart - and let's face it they're going to beat BB&B on lowest price tier. WILLIAMS-SONOMA is going to deliver better selection, service and price on the highest end products (since they aren't adding additional 20% markup to offset a 20% coupon). Each "tier" competitor runs circles around that "tier" of BB&B's businesses.

They're doomed.
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by storewanderer »

luckysaver wrote: January 24th, 2022, 3:15 am BBB also owns Harmon Face Values (a no-frills drugstore without a service pharmacy department and clinical health & wellness services). Most HFV merchandise is also sold at BBB stores and website. There are only 2 locations in the Los Angeles area (in West LA on Pico Blvd across from Westside Pavilion and in Pasadena's Hastings Ranch next door to Ralphs) and the rest of HFV is out-of-state. Very simple layout for merchandise - snack foods/candy, travel & trial size, cosmetics, and toiletries along the walls, and about 12-14 aisles of other related cosmetics/beauty supplies, shaving supplies, first aid, OTC meds, and other health products. Prices are comparable to the big 3 (Rite Aid/CVS/Walgreens) but they don't get the foot traffic of the traditional drugstores because they lack a pharmacy. I don't think they're doing well since several BBBs shuttered in the Los Angeles area. HFV might survive if they get into the pharmacy business but it appears they are not even interested in having in-store pharmacies any time soon.

Bottom line, BBB and HFV are both dying for sure.
I found the Harmon Face Values pricing to be similar to Target (so 5% above Wal Mart at the time) when they first rolled the department out. I have noticed lately the prices have crept up, they have less mix and far more out of stocks, and they have few to no sale items in Harmon Face Values. The Reno BBB has had this department for years now but it was never explicitly branded as Harmon Face Values. They also accepted the 20% off coupons or any other BBB coupon and accept manufacturer coupons.
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by luckysaver »

The 2 LA area Harmon stores are both standalone - the Pico store is its own square building (about the size of a standalone public library but smaller than a corner CVS) and the Pasadena Hastings store is a small space adjacent to Ralphs.

Pico Blvd West LA https://www.yelp.com/biz/face-values-lo ... os-angeles
Pasadena Hastings https://stores-goods.com/California/Pas ... ace_Values
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by veteran+ »

So, I tried to give BBB another chance.

The store in West Los Angeles has been revamped.

I bought an illuminated bath mirror for shaving (etc) in the shower.

$40.00 (made specifically for BBB). Quite attractive!

The light does not turn on and off when it is supposed to. The adhesive does not work. Mirror keeps on falling in the tub. And yes, I carefully followed all of the instructions. It is really a piece of junk.

The famous 20% coupon is applied ONLY to the most expensive item you purchase and not on your total bill.

I'm done with them!
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Re: Bed Bath & Beyond: Dying?

Post by mbz321 »

veteran+ wrote: January 25th, 2022, 7:49 am

The famous 20% coupon is applied ONLY to the most expensive item you purchase and not on your total bill.

I'm done with them!

AFAIK, that is how the coupons always worked...it is off a single item, not an entire transaction. (Occasionally, they would issue one good on your entire order, or a $x off $x coupon, but I haven't seen either for the general public in a very long time).
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