The rise and fall of Bed Bath & Beyond, the iconic housewares retailer that has filed for bankruptcy and is closing its remaining stores

• Founded in 1971, Bed Bath & Beyond quickly became a go-to destination for home goods.
• Its fortunes shifted in recent years, and mounting financial struggles led it to declare bankruptcy.
• Take a look at the rise and fall of the iconic American brand that was loved by many shoppers. 

Once a leading home goods retailer, Bed Bath & Beyond is now in its final days, planning to close its doors for the last time by June 30.

The company ended months of tumult and speculation when it declared bankruptcy in April after a frantic attempt to dig out of a deep financial hole.

Since its founding in 1971 in New Jersey, the retailer quickly became a go-to destination for a huge assortment of products spanning every color and style.

At its peak in 2018, the company owned more than 1,500 stores across three brands in the US, but mounting costs and changing consumer preferences began taking their toll on the business.

A failed foray into in-house brands and leaner inventories, exacerbated by pandemic-era shocks, sent the iconic brand into a tailspin from which it could not recover.

Here's a closer look at Bed Bath & Beyond's rise from a small linen store in New Jersey to a major national retail chain filing for bankruptcy and closing its doors. 

Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971 in New Jersey by Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein.

It was originally called Bed 'n Bath, to reflect its specialty linens and bath products. The company would later rebrand to Bed Bath & Beyond in 1987.

By 1985, Bed Bath & Beyond had expanded to 17 locations, primarily in the greater New York area and California.

The 1980s also marked an era of increased competition in the housewares category, thanks to the rise of stores like Linens 'n Things.

In 1985, the company launched its first superstore concept, a 20,000-square-foot store that would become the model for the modern Bed Bath & Beyond store.

This new massive store featured a wide array of brands and products in nearly every color and style — a departure from the retail norm of stocking a more limited assortment.

Source: Funding Universe

Analysts say a retailer is a "category killer" when it sells a broad selection of merchandise at a wide range of price points — and BB&B was a pioneer of the strategy.

Bed Bath & Beyond continued opening superstores in New Jersey, California, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland, and Florida.

Source: Funding Universe

The new store model, which grouped similar products together and strategically placed impulse buys near the registers, helped sales reach $134 million by 1991.

Source: Funding Universe

Bed Bath & Beyond filed to be a publicly traded company in June 1992.

As it continued to grow, BB&B added popular categories like electric appliances.

In 1999, it reached $1 billion in annual sales.

Source: Funding Universe

By the start of the millennium, Bed Bath & Beyond had 311 stores across 43 states, and was growing fast.

Source: Funding Universe

In 2002, Bed Bath & Beyond acquired the health and beauty retailer Harmon, followed by the holiday chain Christmas Tree Shops in 2003.

Over the next 10 years, the company continued to focus on acquisitions, including purchasing BuyBuy Baby in 2007.

Bed Bath & Beyond additionally purchased both Linen Holdings and Cost Plus World Market in 2012.

Bed Bath & Beyond had also taken a prominent place in popular culture, appearing in shows like "Broad City."

At its peak in 2018, the company boasted 1,552 stores across three brands in North America, including more than 1,000 Bed Bath & Beyond locations.

But soon, specialty big-box stores like Bed Bath & Beyond were showing signs of struggle as consumers turned to e-commerce and other cross-category competitors like Walmart and Target.

Source: Racked

In May 2019, longtime CEO Steven Temares was ousted by a group of activist investors who called for his resignation in a brutal 168-slide presentation.

Source: Insider

In November 2019, former Target merchandising executive Mark Tritton took the helm as CEO, tasked with revitalizing the declining brand.

Source: Business Insider 

While some experts anticipated that the appointment of Tritton would bring promise, it wasn't expected to be an easy turnaround.

Source: Forbes 

Under Tritton, the company attempted to adopt a less "cluttered" and more organized shopping experience and a stronger emphasis on private label merchandise rather than national brands.

Source: Insider, WSJ

The revamp involved reducing its product selection, launching its own brands, and remodeling stores across the US.

A brief boom in sales at the beginning of the pandemic collapsed when Bed Bath & Beyond's newly limited product selection and supply-chain problems led to empty shelves and frustrated shoppers.

Source: Insider

Sales continued to decline, as rising consumer prices led to decreased customer demand.

In June 2022, the company announced it would replace Tritton and several top executives, marking yet another leadership shakeup for Bed Bath & Beyond.

The company's stock briefly became the subject of a meme-stock rally in August 2022, thanks largely to activist investor Ryan Cohen, and plummeted after Cohen sold his holdings later that month.

Source: Insider

On August 31, 2022, Bed Bath Beyond said it would close roughly 150 stores and slash 20% of its corporate staff.

Source: Insider

The company said the moves would help it save $250 million through the end of 2022.

In September 2022, the chain's CFO was found dead after a fall from a New York City building after he had been named in a federal class-action fraud lawsuit.

Troubles continued for Bed Bath & Beyond at the start of 2023, as the company took increasingly drastic measures to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

In a series of announcements in January and February, the company said it would close a total of more than 400 stores — shrinking the company's footprint by about half of what it was a year before.

Even as sales continued to decline and losses continued to climb, the company struck a deal to raise fresh funds through a stock sale.

Additional last-ditch efforts proved not to be enough, and the home goods retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 23.

Interim CFO Holly Etlin said in court filings that the company would conduct an orderly wind down of operations — including inventory liquidation sales — and close for good by June 30.

Former Insider reporter Áine Cain contributed to an earlier version of this story.