I visited one of the closing Bed Bath & Beyond stores and found a bizarre assortment of items for sale and a surprising lack of shoppers

Tue, 02/07/2023 - 05:00

Bed Bath and Beyond closing Louisivlle — A Bed Bath & Beyond store is closing at 4350 Summit Plaza Drive in Louisville.
Ben Tobin

Bed Bath & Beyond has announced it is closing hundreds of stores across the US.
I spent an afternoon in one of those stores in a prominent shopping center in Louisville, Kentucky.
I saw some shelves completely empty, but was more surprised by certain products' strong inventory.

Potentially on the verge of bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores across the US to reduce costs.

I visited a Bed Bath & Beyond location in Louisville, Kentucky, which the company announced on Jan. 30 would be among the closures.

Bed Bath and Beyond Louisville — Ben Tobin

From the moment I walked up to the store, it was clear that it was closing and trying to sell through as much inventory as possible.

At first, I saw what I had expected: many categories, like shelves and containers, depleted of most items.

As of December 2022, the company only had an estimated 53% of inventory available for customers due to supply chain issues and issues paying suppliers.

Empty sheet aisles in Bed Bath and Beyond — Ben Tobin

Source: Insider

The Louisville Bed Bath & Beyond location was hit hard by inventory issues, with some walls in the store featuring hardly any products.

Empty shelves BBBY Louisville — Ben Tobin

For example, the chair section had a lot of empty shelf space...

...as did the table section.

But as I continued to walk throughout the store, I was surprised by how full some sections were.

BBBY full section Louisville — Ben Tobin

The "bed" portion of the store's namesake, for example, had many items nearly fully stocked.

There was an abundant supply of pillows throughout the store.

And window curtains were well-stocked, too.

Even certain bath categories had plenty of products available for customers.

Despite these fully stocked aisles, I was reminded by the ubiquitous sales signs around that this store is in its dying days.

Instead of stocking shelves with more products, store associates put up even more sales signs in hopes to get rid of all products.

And it may be only a matter of time before we see signs like this at all Bed Bath & Beyond stores throughout the US.

The company has missed bond payments, defaulted on a loan, and warned that bankruptcy may be the only option — potentially leading to the company permanently going out of business.

But despite the effort to empty its inventory, there just weren't that many shoppers at the store.

Usually, when I've been to stores that are closing, they're mobbed with customers.

black friday — Stephen Chernin/Getty Images

The Bed Bath & Beyond in Louisville, though, maybe had a total of 10-20 customers during the hour I spent there.

I was surprised by this, but perhaps that's one of the major problems leading to Bed Bath & Beyond's downfall.

The store just has not been able to attract foot traffic like it used to.

And soon, the Bed Bath & Beyond I visited in Louisville won't have any customers at all.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Retail, Features, Bed Bath And Beyond, Inventory, Store closings, Clearance, Business Visual Features

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I visited one of the closing Bed Bath & Beyond stores and found a bizarre assor…