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

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

Post by ClownLoach »

The end has come for Bed Bath and Beyond. Their lenders and vendors have cut them off. They didn't get Buy Buy Baby sold for an emergency line of cash either. Looks like the bankruptcy filing is happening any minute now. RIP BB&B.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/bed-bat ... debts.html
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by bryceleinan »

There are retailers like Incredible Universe, Fry’s Electronics, RadioShack, Kmart, and others I’ll miss… Bed, Bath, & Beyond is not one of those retailers. Sad to see any loss of jobs, but they’re not going to be a huge loss on the retail scene.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

Don't worry. The bankruptcy will be a good thing for the company. They will come out of it stronger. Everyone should remain committed and rest assured the company is there to stay.

Oh that rodeo...

The only thing I'll miss about BBB is I enjoyed walking a BBB then walking a World Market. It was a good way to kill 20-30 minutes. At least I will still be able to go walk the revived and alive World Market. Huge props to Save Mart Investment Group for rescuing World Market AND drastically improving it.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 26th, 2023, 11:36 pm Don't worry. The bankruptcy will be a good thing for the company. They will come out of it stronger. Everyone should remain committed and rest assured the company is there to stay.

Oh that rodeo...

The only thing I'll miss about BBB is I enjoyed walking a BBB then walking a World Market. It was a good way to kill 20-30 minutes. At least I will still be able to go walk the revived and alive World Market. Huge props to Save Mart Investment Group for rescuing World Market AND drastically improving it.
It'll be pretty hard to sell that story considering they let it completely crash into the wall. Usually they pull the Chapter 11 lever before they actually run out of money and default. If they allow situations like paychecks that don't clear or direct deposits that fail, which could happen, it's going to do wonders for employee morale. This happened at Circuit City - employees who didn't have direct deposit and took paper checks home found that the company applied stop payment orders to the paper checks the day they filed Chapter 11. They had to, the court directs them to cancel all outstanding checks. There was nothing we could do other than tell them to fill out a form and mail it to the bankruptcy trustee.

In a retail bankruptcy it is important to know that any checks issued prior to the bankruptcy cannot be reissued legally. They become a bankruptcy claim and the employee becomes a creditor. So when you hear "Company filed today, judge issued standard orders that allow the company to continue operations and pay employees" that order covers all paychecks issued after the order. Not before. Those are claims and the odds are that if the company goes into liquidation that they will never get that paycheck, or may only get a small amount of it depending on the amount of money that comes back in the liquidation. The employee claims will pay first, but if let's say Sleazeball Liquidators Ltd. claims that the remaining funds are $50M after they skim their fat share, and there are $100M in employee claims then that paycheck will be reissued (potentially months or years later) at 50% of its value only.

Moral of the story: if you are an employee of a retailer that is about to file bankruptcy, and you get a paper paycheck or a pay card - IMMEDIATELY CASH YOUR CHECKS. Do not deposit it - go to the issuing bank if possible and tell them to CASH THE CHECK then go deposit that cash. Keep the receipt for the check cashing, demand paperwork date and time stamped. If the bankruptcy filing hits after you cashed it, then you can prove that you did not present a bad check intentionally and the bank or wherever you cashed it will need to file a claim with the bankruptcy court but you'll still have your paycheck. That receipt will protect you because you can prove that you did the cash out before the bankruptcy filing.

I do not believe they can reverse a direct deposit. I do not trust the pay cards (basically a company issued ATM card) as sometimes they say a bank name but the money stays in the company's account until you spend it, which in that case means you lose everything on that card in the bankruptcy filing.

By the way, the Circuit City employees did all get paid in full if they filed a claim form with the court. Probably the worst thing about that bankruptcy is that the company didn't have any serious long term debts. But because of the banking crisis, where suddenly so many homes were defaulting, Washington Mutual had gone belly up, etc. Circuit City got cut off their credit lines on Halloween just like many consumers did and had no choice but to file a bankruptcy. Then they had a fake stalking horse bidder from a Mexican telecom company that had bought COMPUSA but he didn't actually make the bid as promised so the whole thing had to be liquidated after Christmas. All the debts had been paid off within a few days of the liquidation starting and it was the most profitable liquidation ever conducted in retail. Basically there was no real reason the company should have closed.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

I am lucky in that rodeo it was before the time of those pay cards and before direct deposit was common, and I don't recall the day of the week of the bankruptcy filing but there was no issue with paychecks at all at any point. Never heard of any employees filing claims or being unpaid. I would have missed my $7.50/hr back then as it was dollars above minimum wage, so I thought I was making out like a bandit.

I think Circuit City and Toys R Us were two very questionable liquidations that should not have occurred. I thought Toys R Us had the most profitable liquidation sale in history though.

I forgot the exact story on CC and Mexico businesspeople. So first Slim bought shares in CC (early 00's). Then CC went bankrupt and a different group named Pliego was the one who bought up a bunch of shares around the bankruptcy. I am not clear was Slim still holding any CC at the time of the CC bankruptcy? Slim also was doing something with Good Guys when it went under and at one point did these co-branded Good Guys/Comp USA Stores.

Bed Bath and Beyond on the other hand is not at all going to be questionable. So it will be funny if it is somehow saved- just funny how World Market which Bed Bath and Beyond treated like an unwanted stepchild managed to get parceled out and it looks to be set up now a very bright future.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: January 27th, 2023, 8:22 pm I am lucky in that rodeo it was before the time of those pay cards and before direct deposit was common, and I don't recall the day of the week of the bankruptcy filing but there was no issue with paychecks at all at any point. Never heard of any employees filing claims or being unpaid. I would have missed my $7.50/hr back then as it was dollars above minimum wage, so I thought I was making out like a bandit.

I think Circuit City and Toys R Us were two very questionable liquidations that should not have occurred. I thought Toys R Us had the most profitable liquidation sale in history though.

I forgot the exact story on CC and Mexico businesspeople. So first Slim bought shares in CC (early 00's). Then CC went bankrupt and a different group named Pliego was the one who bought up a bunch of shares around the bankruptcy. I am not clear was Slim still holding any CC at the time of the CC bankruptcy? Slim also was doing something with Good Guys when it went under and at one point did these co-branded Good Guys/Comp USA Stores.

Bed Bath and Beyond on the other hand is not at all going to be questionable. So it will be funny if it is somehow saved- just funny how World Market which Bed Bath and Beyond treated like an unwanted stepchild managed to get parceled out and it looks to be set up now a very bright future.
It's possible Toys beat out CC, at the time CC was most profitable ever - Toys may have just been most volume ever?
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by ClownLoach »

WSJ has reported all Harmon stores are closing down. Along with 87 more BB&B. Maybe they got up front liquidator offers for those locations to get some cash? They're burning their furniture in winter to avoid freezing to death.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

Closing the 50 Harmon Stores is largely symbolic, to look as if they're doing something. What about the Harmon departments within the BBB Stores? Are those all closing too?

The Harmon aisles in the Reno BBB have not been replenished much if at all for close to a year now.


Another 87 BBB closures is interesting too. My guess is the current round of closures isn't doing as well as the initial rounds did so now their situation of trying to use closing store proceeds to keep going is requiring a greater number of stores to close.

I am also suspicious they are having trouble arranging funding for a Chapter 11. This may explain the delay in filing and sudden additional inventory liquidations.

I'll be surprised to see who steps up and tries to save this chain in Chapter 11. Anyone who spent time in the stores especially the past six months would know this is unfortunately for tenured employees a lost cause.
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by storewanderer »

Hearing Culver City and Hawthorne both closing in SoCal. Both remodeled. Not formally confirmed yet.

Also Glendora, Upland, Visalia and Folsom appear to have been announced this week.

Also Vancouver, WA.
Also Mesa, AZ South Signal
Park City, UT
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Re: Bed, Bath and Bye Bye: Company is officially in default

Post by J-Man »

Meanwhile, I received FIVE separate emails before 10AM today from BB&B. Two advising me of local stores closing (one BB&B and one Harmon Face Values), two offering me coupons --- which of course are not accepted at the local stores that are closing -- and one encouraging me to sign up for their rewards program (which costs $29/year.) Wouldn't it be more efficient just to put the $29 in the shredder?
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