Bankrupt - Bed Bath & Beyond
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- čas přidán 18. 05. 2023
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For nearly 50 years, Bed Bath and Beyond was at the top of their game, known across the industry as a "category killer", able to stand up to the largest companies in America like Walmart and Target just by their niche in the market. Millions of deal-hungry shoppers, wedding registries and college young adults shopped here and helped skyrocket the company into massive success with over 1,500 stores. But just as quickly as their rise, the retailer then fell on hard times. In under a decade, the company went from record sales, to bankruptcy and a total collapse of the brand. Join me today as I explore why this happened and document the final moments for a beloved retailer.
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Every time I think “how will Jake keep this series going, he’s covered so much already” another big chain goes out of business, double edged sword I guess 😂
You’d be surprised on how many major institutions throughout our history have gone belly up. I’m just here to tell those stories
@@Rogerztheurbanlegend sounds like something a mafia boss would say regarding competitive businesses
Like really there is a ton more companies to do and countries.
@@BrightSunFilms but you get off to jobless people though.
@@BrightSunFilms you have agents in every institution plotting the demise from within
I decorated my first apartment entirely for like 100 bucks because of Linen and Things shutting down and I just stocked up my first house for like 100 bucks because of Bed, Bath, and Beyond shutting down. Time is truly a circle.
Lemme check those sales real quick! I'm in my first apartment 😊
Sounds like you got some good deals now my local bed bath & beyond has keiruig’s for $500+
Ah, you have the opposite luck that I do on this. They eliminated their Buy Buy BABY sections right before we got pregnant
Truly the hallmark of being a Millennial lol
Oh wow omg lucky!
I remember when I moved into my first apartment and thought "Why not hit up Bed Bath & Beyond?" When I saw the prices I walked right out and never went back. Like Jake said, everything they had you can find elsewhere for a better price.
Even their sale is too expensive
Only reason people go their know is for the deals
Yep. Saw this coming. Target is cheaper and better free shipping deals
@@xUnic31xno joke - my mom offered to buy me something during our store’s liquidation, and even with the discount, i told her we could still get it cheaper from amazon 😭
The $85 soap dispenser floored me!! How did they think they would get away with that
I went to the BBB liquidation in my local store, and the prices were _still_ too high for me to consider buying _anything._
It's sad because when ur going outta business u figure they lower the prices drastically. Not raise them higher.
Bed Bath & Beyond is beyond expensive, even after the 20% going out of business discount, things there were still more expensive than I could buy it online.
I went to a closeout sale in my area and most of the markdowns were still way too high. Like $100 for one single curtain rod, $80 for one bedsheet set, $50 for a set of plates etc
I’ve lived most of my life in a country without Bed, Bath & Beyond, just hearing about it now and again from various American media. I moved to NZ 4 years ago and was surprised to find we have it here… only to discover how wildly over priced it is! I go in there occasionally, but it’s so obvious they price for heavy and consistent discounting. I’m honestly fairly sure the pricing method is why they aren’t in the UK, where I’m from, because that kind of practice isn’t allowed.
@princesslulu same
Gotta scalp the customers one final time before puttering out.😂
Same! I went with my husband, and we just laughed the whole way through the store and left. Even with a going out of business sale, everything was still 20-60% overpriced.
I feel for all the employees that are going to lose their jobs. Not only at the retail locations but call centers and distribution centers as well.
That is a real devastating part of the story
That's how life goes
It's important to set the record straight on why this happened. The collapse of BB&B is not an isolated incident nor is it a result of "mismanagement" except in the most tautological sense. Nor for that matter is it something which happened over a short period of time, the seeds of destruction were being sown years ago. Rather, it is another casualty in the decline and collapse of American retail.
BB&B, like so many other middle class retailers, has suffered because the American middle class that were their intended customer demographic and market has been in decline. If a company is built to sell to the middle class, and the middle class disappears then the company disappears as well. Falling real wages result in a race to the bottom on price alone, and the rise of discounters, dollar stores, and garbage online retailers is the inevitable result.
Rather than being a recent phenomenon, this has been a long running trend driven by bad economic, trade, industrial, environmental, fiscal, and tax policies which resulted in the collapse of American manufacturing, the collapse of the middle class that it created, the creation of enormous trade deficits, a race to the bottom on price destroying both the quality of consumer goods and services and the middle class retailers that served them. This bankruptcy cannot be viewed in a vacuum, it must be viewed in the broader context that produced it. These job losses are just another chapter in a long running saga that is often forgotten or not properly understood when telling stories like this.
@@dancooper6002 damn bro, I ain’t reading all that. But I’m proud of you. Or sorry that it happened
@@bandombeviews6035 Middle class is sinking, therefore middle class oriented shops are shrinking
Ex BBB employee here. Gonna spill some tea, it's not like they can sue me lol. Brother and sister worked for the company before I did, and then after I left, my boyfriend worked there, so bed bath and beyond has been a vital part of my life for a while.
It's totally wild how much it had changed from when I had first started, to when I left. Promotions were often insinuated and dangled like a carrot. When positions 'opened up' the company randomly decided that we 'didn't need those positions anymore', even though they were 2 keyholder/management positions, that left at the same time.
Safety was obviously not a priority there. For the 5 years I worked there, I had BEGGED them to get our balleymore ladders (the stair ones pictured in the video), fixed because they were so wobbley, that you couldn't stand on it without it swaying. Not to mention them wanting you to put product over 50lbs on shelves above your head. Don't even get me started on how we were treated by customers lmao.
Related enough: I applied to work for them about 2004. The manager told me that the form was "focused on loss prevention." And by this, she meant that it was 100 questions long and that 90 of them were variations on "Are you SURE you aren't going to steal something?" Some bizarre thinking about how people might let their guard down if you ask them enough times. Walmart was the same way about marijuana use around the same time.
Ya when i worked there they needed to update ladders here as well. Never did. Cheap broke place to work.
Same things happened at World Market. I started working there shortly after the BBB merger. Benefits changed drastically and I watched over time as full time roles were slashed and forced to be part-time roles. It was ridiculous.
I don't shop specifically because shoppers are rude
Same thing at world market when we were under bbb
I went to a BBB a few years back for a muffin tin. The minute I went in, I was overwhelmed with all the crap they had on the wall. They made looking for one simple item feel like a chore. Stuff stacked so high. Their prices were insane for what I could get for less at Target, Walmart, Amazon, or a resale store.
Imagine being at work one day and then BAM Jake makes an episode of Bankrupt on the company you work for.
Basically the same thing happened when Morphe stores were closing out of the blue and employees found out through tea channels on CZcams
Imagine working for a soulless company lmao 😂
@@jeltoninc.8542we gotta make money somehow🥲
@@jeltoninc.8542 Said the entrepreneur 😂
im a current BBBY employee and uh- yeah 😭
This is what happens when you don't have Christopher Walken working in the Beyond section at every store 😉
It took all that was in me not to use footage from that movie lol
The only movie to ever make me cry!
Christopher Workin'
Didn't he kill someone?
Ligit, the same thought crossed my mind during this 😂
the problem I always had with bed bath and beyond is that it was target quality stuff for Williams and Sonoma prices. You were paying as much, if not more, money for inferior products
Exactly
This is true. Target does have better prices
One thing no one seems to have touched on was that in their "junky" phase before the new people took control is how they had small video screens all over the store that loudly repeated ads for products nearby on an infinite loop. It was SO irritating that I was practically begging my wife to make a decision on what to buy/not buy and get out of that store before I lost my mind to an unending ad for Poo Pourri.
That sounds simultaneously hilarious, infuriating and sad.
@@GeistInTheMachine game stop
The worst of it was during college season, where for some ungodly reason they decided to play 3 of them in one section of the store, and all playing different things:
Source: I worked there during that time, and I felt like I was going fucking mad
@@nate567987no
It's like being forced to watch those screens on gas pumps haha
I remember going into a BB&B in 2009 and thinking “This is the same stuff they sell at Walmart only it’s marked way up”. Those 20% coupons they always sent out did little more than put their prices in the same ballpark as big box stores.
There is a difference. In addition to the same crap Walmart sells, they also sold high-end options.
With these specialty retailers closing, we are becoming forced to buy _quality_ stuff "blind" online (because Walmart won't stock a $200 set of sheets, for example). Buying, and returning, a "fancy" set of sheets you bought online 7 times because they are actually crap is *far* more work than just visiting a store and touching all the options. I'm missing it.
@@TonyPombo LOL High end, they just charged much more than anyone else, it was not anymore high end than any other store! That is why they went under!
@@nhcharmedone They were overpriced, but they also stocked higher end stuff. Like 15-piece Cuisinart induction cookware, Ninja Pro blenders, Dyson cordless vacs, 1000 thread-count sheets, etc. Walmart sells these things online, but not in the store.
Yay. Glad that woketard anti-American company has kicked the bucket. Let's go after Target next.
At least you have sense then the higher ups behind this business to justify things like a wastebasket for $84.
The funny thing is that I didn't even realize Bed Bath and Beyond was actually going bankrupt because our store in my area are just there just living it large.
Same with the one near me.
Same with mine then two randomly were marked closing sale
Same here. Nothing stops people in Delray Beach from shopping. Our store on Linton Ave was always busy until it closed.
Imagine what they could have done with $11 BILLION if they didn't waste it on stock buybacks. Absolute insanity.
You mentioned that the CEOs were frugal. One of the ways they saved money was storing their products on the sales floor. Those massive banner boards covered up all their extra stock, so that every square foot of store space was used for sales floor. That’s why at their peak their price per square foot was so high. It’s a genius plan if it works.
I worked at Bed Bath and Beyond for years. Storing things in mid stock and top stock made stocking shelves a huge pain. So much going up and down ladders in the morning. And if you had to down stock something from up top during business hours, it often took three staff to do it-one to get the item, one to pass it down to, and if it was on a finger wall with a room on the other side of the shelf, you had to have staff on that side to verify that the area was clear in case something should be knocked over. Their storage methods maximized space, but made poor use of employee time. They did away with most top stock and mid stock storage when they made changes after closing for the pandemic. And also, finding things under banners could be a nightmare if it wasn’t pogged correctly. Which, it usually wasn’t. And because their technology was dated, it wasn’t the easiest information to access. 😅
toys r us does this as well
I worked in a store that still had stock behind those banners. Yup, it sucked. And even worse was the disorganized and messy stockrooms. If you think the sales floor was bad, you do not want to know how the stockrooms were, they were barely walkable and once the shipping and receiving guy stacked a bunch of these plastic bins on the very top of the stock room, and neither my manager nor I could feasibly get them down in a safe way.
The worst part was the pick orders, I remember searching behind so many banners just trying to find the item being ordered which we only had 1 of.
My wife used to drag me to these stores ( there were two in our area), and I was always shocked at the high prices that they were asking for ordinary household items. I would always find the same stuff on Amazon for a lot cheaper, but she liked “ to browse “. I’m not surprised that they went tits up, to be honest….
Exactly. This was where you'd go to touch and feel the product before buying it for a sane price elsewhere.
Your wife was smart to use it as a showroom.
The specialty retailer model is broken. The only retailers that I consider safe are grocery stores, Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes. Beyond that everyone else is in trouble!
indeed, kinda of pointless especially in this society of "convenience" and accessibility. Its basically how these retailers evolved from "malls", where lot of these retailers are located at. Since malls don't really do well either due to over priced, due to easy "convenience/internet" . No one really cares for traveling long distances for these type of things and OVER Priced, majority of the time too! Hence why they never do well.. too expensive for over priced crap.
But considering now, internet stores and regular retailers, prices are keeping "even" now a days, not like the old days, when you could get goods very cheaply vs now, which prices are evenly online and at retail store.
Target for now.
Correct. Add Costco to that list. I'm a huge Amazon shopper but I still go to Walmart, Home Depot and grocery stores. The rest just get killed off by Amazon.
the weakness of physical good/food stores, are usually thieves, drug addicts, which close these places down and "unions" lol, "any" corporations weakness are unions(wanting fair wages for their workers). Plus you have people on the "left" encouraging "thieves" to steal and criminal behavior, its why we don't prosecute petty crimes anymore. I'm prety liberal, but these leftists are prety bad at destroying business's.
Its like walmart, lot of which are closing down as well due to thieves and self checkouts. Once those goes under, costco and others will follow suit; all depends on locations.
It's notable that many products at Home Depot and Lowes are priced lower than on Amazon.
I went into their store closing sale and the prices were still OUTRAGEOUS. No wonder they went bankrupt who would shop here in 2023.
My dad worked for the company from age 16-44, when he was laid off due to the pandemic. He went from being a part time floor worker to a district executive. He met my mom by working there and he had 2 kids while working there. I will always love this company as if it wasn’t for it I wouldn’t be writing this comment but it is just crazy to think back of all the memories of me begging my mom to take me to the store to see my dad. Good times
The prices were a major contributor to their downfall, in my opinion anyway. The reason why customers did the coupon thing was because otherwise their prices were simply ludicrous in many cases.
Pre smartphone era we didn't price compare as much.
Like when we bought things for my college dorm in the early 2000's (probably the main time we did a big BBB trip) just went in and bought stuff. But now we Google who has it cheaper then just get things shipped.
Got things when I got a new King bed in 2007, but when I redid my moms room in 2019, I just bought everything online from Wayfair (that's not perfect either though since they shipped everything separately like 25 different packages, and several of the blues don't match)
Trust me man, a big factor is always prices. Aint no man with good common sense spends $50 - $70 for trash bin!! You can a good quality trash bin at dollar general for like ten to twenty bucks depends how much to throw away!!
Other than that, fifty to seventy bucks?!?! come on man!!
There’s not been many companies that have gone bankrupt as of late that have actually hurt. But this one does, Bed Bath and Beyond had absolutely top notch blankets, I remember one of my cats absolutely adored one of the blanket we got until his death in 2021. Gonna miss Bed Bath and Beyond a lot, thanks for the memories.
My parents would give me a $100😊 BB&B gift card for Christmas every year. I always looked forward to my shopping trip with it. I'll miss the store
Sorry about your cat. I have a cat that my ex girlfriend found in the middle of a field in the dead of winter. She found him as a kitten and I didn’t want him in the slightest bit. I was so mad at her for dragging him home. Well here we are 16 years later and he’s my homie. I don’t know what I’ll do when he dies.
It's important to set the record straight on why this happened. The collapse of BB&B is not an isolated incident nor is it a result of "mismanagement" except in the most tautological sense. Nor for that matter is it something which happened over a short period of time, the seeds of destruction were being sown years ago. Rather, it is another casualty in the decline and collapse of American retail.
BB&B, like so many other middle class retailers, has suffered because the American middle class that were their intended customer demographic and market has been in decline. If a company is built to sell to the middle class, and the middle class disappears then the company disappears as well. Falling real wages result in a race to the bottom on price alone, and the rise of discounters, dollar stores, and garbage online retailers is the inevitable result.
Rather than being a recent phenomenon, this has been a long running trend driven by bad economic, trade, industrial, environmental, fiscal, and tax policies which resulted in the collapse of American manufacturing, the collapse of the middle class that it created, the creation of enormous trade deficits, a race to the bottom on price destroying both the quality of consumer goods and services and the middle class retailers that served them. This bankruptcy cannot be viewed in a vacuum, it must be viewed in the broader context that produced it. These job losses are just another chapter in a long running saga that is often forgotten or not properly understood when telling stories like this.
@@dancooper6002 I agree with everything you said in your post. There is no middle class anymore 😢
If you shop there they will live. I think a buyout. People spending money now may attract a buyer. I'm all in. I want that life changing money. Better than power ball to me. Not financial advice but idk. They could get bought. It's a meme. People love the brand. It's an Adam Sandler brand. He should buy this shit and make a click 2 lol
Just to illustrate how forgettable BB&B is in the modern era, I listened to this whole video wondering how Bath & Body Works is going out of business
Two different companies dum
Dum
@@SurvivingAnotherDay yeah i think they know that
@@abbyesw0rld they did, but you didn’t
@@SurvivingAnotherDay bro what did that have to do with anything because i knew so it doesn’t make any sense
@@SurvivingAnotherDayyes, that's the point, OP was so confused
A BB&B opened up in my city several years ago and I was flabbergasted at how it stayed open with virtually no customers in it. I could have sworn it was a money laundering front for organized crime lol.
That they didn't prioritize building a high-quality online presence was the biggest mistake.
Agreed. Unbelievably, their website was just as clunky and cluttered as their stores and too hard to navigate.
even if they did they couldn’t compete with amazon
@@gigachad6162 Nobody can and that's the problem.
@The Blue Raccoon Even if they did that and more most likely it would have not been enough for BB&B not to to bankrupt then to close. It was just a matter of time. The controllers of this world have set a dead to bring down businesses and companies to an end.
No body is hitting on the real reason they went under. Lack of sales after dumping the My Pillow guy.
As a former employee of Albertsons, I'd LOVE it of Jake would do a episode about that company. Name me another company that was, for at least a few weeks I think, THE biggest grocery chain (until a Kroger merger put them #1 again), then ran themselves out of business as fast as they did. Also, there's actually TWO Albertsons now. Same company. Same logo. Same stores. But it's actually split in two depending if you're on the east or west coast of the U.S. I tried hard to find out why the store was going under and all I could get from my managers was "The higher ups were taking expensive vacations and not paying attention to the stores". They sold the company off to Cerberus LLC I think. That's a good sign...taken over by a company named after a three-headed hound from hell. Anyway, Cerberus rolled in, worked the HELL out of us to make us seem profitable (I saw store directors on their hands and knees doing menial work like painting random stuff). Then when we seemed profitable, they sold us off to the competition (Publix) for a profit. Publix told all of us to hit the road because, as an employee owned company, they only promote within. So many of my buddies lost their job. Hardworking people too. Just like Bed Bath and Beyond, it's ALWAYS the little guy that suffers while the higher ups rake it in.
Cerberus. I'd like to know more about this company. Personally it's getting to a point where looting and stealing to survive might be the only option
@David Knight A&P veteran here, I feel you. ACME aka Albertson's east hastened our demise with a stalking horse bid.
Davis Knight;
I Google Cerverus, Dan Quayle is apart of this monopoly, the company means to disguises itself as an investment firm.
However they seem more like corporate raiders with political connection.
No wonder you lost your employment.
Employees have little to no risk. And therefore little to no reward. Unskilled retail labor can find work next door the hardest thing they have ever done in their life is go three weeks without weed to pass a preemployment UA.
The people I feel sorry for are all the pensioner retirees who's live savings are invested in these failing companies. Just trying to "diversify" their portfolio on suggestion by their incompetent wealth planner aka wealth destroyer.
@@jj4791 Apparently getting evicted or starving is "little to no risk". Kiss my ass.
My good friend was a manager for BBB for many years and loved her store. Once things started going downhill she left and started a new job last year. Sadly she passed away in February. I'm glad she did not have to see this downward spiral.
It’s funny because I knew something weird was happening because around January (I work at a dollar general) we were told right after the holidays to pull the bed bath and beyond and the buy-buy baby gift cards because they were on a “recall” and we needed to just trash them but now it makes sense, they didn’t want to risk selling them because they knew what was coming lol kinda shady.
Everyone knows there were two types of people who went to a bedbath.
People who just bought a house.
And Adam Sandler
Shame not even his Networth could keep them afloat. He should have tried to become a CEO and then it would have been a comedy.
I was wondering was anyone going to make a Click reference! All is right in the world now! Haha
Yeah, I'm surprised this video didn't mention the store's role in "Click" (assuming I didn't just miss it). It seemed like more than just another product placement, and speaks to the impact BB&B had.
Watching these videos is always super sad because you're happy to see the company grow and then you remember that the video is about it's bankruptcy :(
i’m happy bbby went bankrupt. worst job i’ve ever worked in my life.
@@gigachad6162 Now it went to the great beyond. 😂
Eh most of the corporations are scummy. I dont feel bad for them in most cases
This place was a MASSIVE help when I was heading off to college this year. I was shocked when I came home for the summer and my mom told me "we better go the Bed Bath and Beyond, they're about to go under." It really is a shame.
Bed Bath & Beyond pricing can only be described as violently expensive
as someone who works for BBB rn, it's hard to see it go, but we've been in this weird limbo state of half-stocked shelves filled only with horribly low quality yet extremely expensive private label brands so its very unsurprising. It's funny to think their idea of "innovation" is trying to be more like bigger retailers like target, because it is 100% what caused their downfall.
Really getting to be a nightmare now and also those people may want to watch Betterment Boss along with NOT KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES.
@@kellychuang8373 lol, I pretend to understand
it's several years ago now, but as an ex-employee of BB&B, your estimation of the customer experience in the store at the end of the video is spot-on. i was one of the people tasked with stocking/organizing the shelves all across the store (there were only 2 of us for the entire store, which....oof) and good lord, was it chock-full of overpriced junk and as-seen-on-TV nonsense... if i never see another damn spiralizer again, it'll be too soon lmao
and yeah, even when i was there before their sales peak in 2018, it just felt....off, in a way. this is just the store i was working at, but we had over half a dozen managers for one store, none of them knew what the others were doing, there was only one who could handle staff schedules, another who trained me & the other person didn't show us proper techniques for sorting a couple of the sections....it was a mess
anyway, great video!! 😄 and yeah, i feel bad for all the current employees who are gonna be laid off now...
I worked at a store from 2015 - 17 officially as a hard goods sales associate: and the experience you described here is spot on. I did just about everything from sales, stocking, cashier and inventory control all for about $12 an hour. Our managers had no idea what the others were doing, our products were super overpriced compared to online/other stores, departments conflicted, etc.
Our GM was a nice guy and I recall our Ops manager getting terminated for one too many flirtatious remarks against customers and employees, but the worst was our Soft Goods Manager who was an absolute jerk to everyone and even treated customers like dirt.
All of that aside: BBB was special around the holiday season and I met some really good folks who shared my struggle. The average employees who made peanuts knew your struggle and we all supported one another and joked around after the store closed.
RIP BBB. You’ll be remembered. Not necessarily missed by me personally, but not forgotten either.
I furnished my entire college apartment from their store. Then I failed out of school. Thanks a lot, Bed Bath & Beyond.
I don’t know if anyone will see this but let say this. I got hired for bby the week before they announced bankruptcy. And let me tell you, all the workers their were not surprised but still upset. Considering that a lot of them are older folks that only got the job to pay off medication. But luckily for them, they found other jobs because they knew the inevitability. As for me, after I heard the news, I just walked of during my break.
that’s kind of crazy, I hope you find another place to work!
Strange they’d hire you knowing it was going under.
@@GudMarty If the store is still open they still need employees. I'm sure a lot of employees started looking for other jobs the moment they heard "bankruptcy".
Wouldn't be a BANKRUPT episode without at least a passing mention of the the 2008 financial crisis.
Thanks for not letting us down Jake.
It’s the “everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked” of this series 😂
It's always weird seeing a staple you're used to knowing about suddenly close completely. feels like Sears and Circuit city all over again.
it wasn't sudden - this has been years in the making...
As a current employee and first job to have, it does sadness me to see bbby being close down. I still remember that morning when me along with my manager received the email of the company filing for bankruptcy. I honestly saw it coming but not so soon. The first weeks since the announcement people were going crazy and I was in disbelieve to see so many people in the store. Currently it has slowed down because the discounts still didn’t make a difference. I always though why the store was empty, but if I was a customer I wouldn’t even shop at this store. I totally agree the prices were WAY to high almost to the point that you can find the same item at a different store but more cheaper. We still received items almost everyday from warehouse to be push out. I’m glad this video is made because I was curious as to why this was happening. Now we are waiting when would be the official closing day because I been ask this questions everyday and I’m as clueless as everyone else. I will miss working here!
i’m a current employee at bed bath and beyond. our senior manager left a week before the bankruptcy was announced because our store shuttered for two days due to our inability to pay our electricity bill. im still going strong, however!
@screagleagle8138 at which location? There’s 2 in Texas that have permanently closed. Temple and Harker Heights
I went to one of my local Bed Bath & Beyond's in my Canadian city. They had just announced they would be closing and everything was marked down 10-20% off. Unfortunately, even at that discount, their prices were still higher than other stores. It felt like they had bought product from other retail giants and jacked up the price by 30 to 50%. Once the sales hit 50% off, prices actually felt slightly cheaper than other retail giants.
Whenever a store franchise that’s been in your town/city for years closes down, that’s usually a sign the rest of the franchise is downsizing or going down.
Facts we knew BBB was going bankrupt when they announced 6 months ago they were closing the store in our small town
You're right on that and also used to see several parts besides that store close like Blockbuster, Borders and also I think there was a Cinnamon Productions around that went under in my neighborhood. Rough landscape these days and those types really can be easy to be drunk on their own success. Tough world out there.
I live in a medium size city where there’s pretty much one of everything especially retail stores. Except of course Walmart although very far apart on either ends of the city. Our Sears, Kmart etc we’re some of the last to close in the stat and I can only assume the same for BBB. There’s 1 mall. The only store that shuttered overnight wasToy R Us.
When I got married everyone told me to register at BBB. I walked in the door, got so overwhelmed I left and registered on Amazon instead.
@emilyhennessey8294 why were you over whelmed?
Good choice! I used to work at BBB and I marveled at how they pushed fine china SO HARD. That was so out of touch- it blew my mind. Virtually no one under 65 uses fine china, it’s way too expensive and people registering for weddings don’t usually have the space either. But despite all of that, we would get customers who were upset that the couple they were shopping for didn’t register for fine china. 😂
I went the other day to one of their stores that had CLEARANCE DUE TO CLOSURE EVERYTHING MUST GO sign. And everything was STILL SUPER EXPENSIVE EVEN WITH A DISCOUNT. It was so dumb 😂
Everybody gangsta until Retail Archeology comes to your store to shoot B roll footage
I will miss them. Bed Bath and Beyond gave me coupons on top of coupons when I first went to college. The store furnished my dorm room. ❤
This one hurt. I despise shopping, but always loved going to Bed Bath & Beyond. Amazing quality, selection, and customer service. Will be sorely mossed. Just made my final purchase from them online last week. Thank you for this great tribute.
emu5088 missed not mossed
In my 20yrs, my city had a BB&B. I completely agree with your personal viewpoint. When i became an adult with my own money to spend, i would shop there. CRAZY PRICES. I couldn't see myself spending $50+ for a trash bin (I personally liked the all mirror one)!! I never returned to shop there. Sad
I use to practically live at Bed Bath & Beyond and Pier 1. They had such great bedding and curtains and bath towels. I miss those days. I started going in and walking out without finding anything I wanted to buy. Still sad to see them go.
Pier 1 was the best
Crazy that just in 6 years it went from the best the company has been to bankruptcy.
They missed the signs and continued growing when they should have stopped.
@@michaeljohn9263 it's not due to right wing politics and MyPillow, it's because they expanded way too much compared to their eventual end financial growth and it led to their quick demise as they didn't expect growth to slow down, besides Covid of course making that death faster. It's not due to hicks like you reeeing over no more of MyPillows.
I should add that besides the fact bud light did their campaign only in Canada (a far more trans supportive nation than the US) and you guys went apeshit over that, brands have done this in the past because in most case, you guys aren't the biggest customers and it gains money from cisgender white (yes) Liberals that will blindly buy a product for having a white blue pink flag or a rainbow flag or mentions black people. The only reason Bud Light is different is because indeed most Budwiser customers are indeed hicks like you. Yeah admittedly too someone like me on the cover on the packaging isn't gonna make me drink the piss water of alcohol. I already a weirdo that doesn't like alcohol, let alone that.
@@michaeljohn9263 I'm surprised to see yours, this far down, as the first mention of "get woke, go broke".
@@MultiTelan
The problem is that a lot of people on here never made the connection. Republican's normally have decent jobs and did shop there as well as they supported 45 along with Lindell. Once they pulled his products things slowly dried up. Not to mention that 46 has destroyed the economy along with the bs lockdowns and boom...bankrupt.
I went there about a year ago to buy some new bathroom towels. It was an exercise in futility trying to match color across different kinds of towels because of a lack of stock. Entire shelves that had always been fully stocked were just completely empty during this trip. I ended up using two different kinds of blue. The bathroom looks really great this way but it took some figuring in my head that I'd rather not have done. They cited "supply issues related to the pandemic" but I felt it was likely something more sinister and I was right. I even mentioned it as I was checking out and the employee, while friendly, was clearly quite sick of hearing about it. This condition was true throughout the store; it wasn't just a bathroom towel issue. Now I know that they just couldn't afford to restock. Very interesting video and very sad as I'd always hit up BB&B whenever I could. We're truly living in an Amazon world now.
Man, this one got dark with the suicide. I hardly ever shopped at BB&B, but I did like walking through it on occasion because it was like a mini-IKEA.
First I ever heard about this company was from the movie, Click.
But Retail Archelogy is a great channel! Lovely guy running it and Well worth checking out!!!
Hello, you! I've been a follower of Retail Archeology for quite a while and he has some good stuff.
Bed Bath & Beyond right now is following the path of their former rival. (Linens-N-Things)
Yep
Oh when I was working at BBB back when Linens-n- Things went bankrupt, we were all sooo arrogant about running our rival into the ground.
Everything comes back around.
@@athos1974 Yes and I think karma is coming for Walmart, too. They killed off many businesses in the 70s and 80s. Things are really weird, in retail. It'll be interesting.
Instead of learning from the demise of LnT they just took it for granted not realizing or paying attention to threats from Walmart Target Amazon. As consumers most people don't care where something comes from just who has it for the lowest price. This is why Target has been growing their house brands.
When I moved into my boyfriend’s house he had NOTHING. I went to look around. It was literally a mess. I needed a vacuum cleaner. I looked at a Dyson. They asked $599. The exact same model was $399 on Dysons website. I wanted a coffee maker. $179 at BB&B. $139 on the the manufacturer website. They were so egregious with their pricing. And the store was a chaotic mess.
I have such fond memories of shopping at Bed, Bath, and Beyond with my mom when I was younger and I'm actually quite sad to see the store close. I always enjoyed walking around and had the most pleasant interactions with the employees
I worked for a company that went bankrupt in the early 2020 . I knew they were heading down that path when the company was doing good .
Bed bath and beyond I couldn’t afford their prices . The store was an abomination, I walked in and walked right out . I felt for workers they looked depressed
The sign of the times. The end of the High Tech overspending sector.
I knew everything was going to head down when Biden got sworn in during that fake election. And here we are.
Yeah, I was a BBB a year ago, it was one of those that tried to get a cafe, but after 2020 they never finished it so it sat there abandoned. I couldn't find anything in the store I wanted and there were no employees at all around. The place was literally just opened in 2021 and it was the most outdated and miserable looking store I ever saw. I think all of us saw the writing on the wall by 2020-2021.
The worst part about this one is Buy Buy Baby closing alongside. Same deal when Toys R Us took Babies R Us down with it. Unless you have a local baby boutique (and those tend to only sell expensive luxury brands), there is no physical store chain where you can physically see cribs/strollers/gliders. My husband and I are expecting a baby this fall and it *sucks* having to trust Amazon reviews over being able to see stuff in person.
lol u and your baby can get owned lol
wish I had seen this channel earlier, we had a hotel in Anchorage AK that went from a 5 star, 5 minutes away from everything staple of town, to a den for the homeless, and somewhere you never stayed. Northern Lights hotel got torn down in 2020 iirc. We are also notorious up here for having large areas//structers be left abandoned for years, or only minimally changing a building to suit a completely different need. Our school disterict office building has a school in it. Same building was an 80's strip mall, and you can tell.
I’m really going to miss them because unlike many customers I like going to stores filled with big selections of name brands. They lost me when they started carrying very bland in-store brands.
I worked for the company for two years, at Buy Buy Baby, and had a roommate working at Bed Bath & Beyond. The way they treated us was insanely terrible. Even when I transferred stores, especially during the pandemic, it was downright awful and inhumane. Not the managers either - corporate.
Also Buy Buy Baby was their main revenue maker but they put more investment money into Bed Bath & Beyond. I'm not surprised at all that they failed because they ignored the #1 basic rule in business - reinvest where it's profitable.
"I'm not surprised at all that they failed because they ignored the #1 basic rule in business - reinvest where it's profitable."
They don't care. That's one of the major issues with modern end-stage capitalism; everything is short-term. Why reinvest when you can use the money to buy back stocks, boost your own salary, then cash out and move on to another company.
It doesn't help either that malls in many locations are either dead or dying. BB&B inventory was way down when I last shopped there in the spring of 2022, leading me to believe they'd soon be filing for bankruptcy. Also, I found the store very disjointed in regard to how they displayed their products.
Yeah I kind of also may have noticed that as well no one now in their right mind is going and also for that woman sleeping in that bed in this video I would warn that bed isn't as comfy as it seems now.
my late grandma loooved Bed Bath & Beyond but there came a point where the stores were simply unnavigable for her mobility devices and we never went back. plus the wal-mart and target stores were just more convenient and closer, with aisles that could actually allow her to participate in shopping without getting caught on something.
seeing the big "going out of business" sale earlier this year actually made me kinda nostalgic, she would've loved that and we would've been finding new, unused candles and soaps for years afterward haha.
Wow, I never thought I would see an actual bankrupt episode on bed bath and beyond, especially considering I asked for it. But wow, unlike other bankrupt companies, this one holds a special place: me and my mom used to go there all the time before we moved, and it really was a story for everything the modern home needed. As per usual, it's corporate greed and uncompromising arrogance that brings chains like these down so fast.
Sounds like a similar story to Pier 1 Imports; their failure to adapt to the changing market for online shopping convenience & having price-competitive products lead to their downfall. And I think it's safe to say that shopping for home supplies isn't as crucial for most ppl nowadays as it once was.
Worked here lost my job wasn’t told we were closing until I came in that day thank you for simplifying it lol
I loved that store.They had so much nice stuff. I litterally bought everything for my home at bed Bath and Beyond. I would go in with the idea of buying just a few pillows, but ended up buying new sheets and a bedspread . I still have an ellegant set of white bone china that I used for everyday meals. I was really sad when I learned that they were closing the brick and mortar stores...
It's insane to believe that my dad's first job in the 1970s was at the first Bed Bath n Beyond store. Now its a bankrupt almost non existent relic of the past. Thanks Jake!
When I first heard then seen all these stores closing, I was sorta happy because I knew Jake and BSF would soon be doing a video about it. Thank you Jake for all you do man. You're the best! 🌞
Thanks so much! I hope you think I told a good story here!
@@BrightSunFilmsabsolutely yes!! You are an amazing storyteller. 😀
I used to love Bed Bath & Beyond but their prices are what drove me away, their items like he said were just do darn high for the value you get from them. You can go to other places and get the same or similar items for much less. Sorry to see them go because so many people will lose their jobs and things go up in price.
This is what killed it for me too. I remember going to college and getting tons of mail advertising them for dorm purchases, but their prices were outrageous.
me and my dad would go to this place for stocking stuffers during christmas, but we also did some shopping for other members of the family.
Back in the day I loved this place. It was a buffet of things I could afford as a newlywed. Then it became a mess of things I couldn't afford.
I watch this series and learn it's lessons. Losing your identity. Growing too fast. Stop making the customer #1. Stop giving a damn about anything but $$$$. These lessons are all here.
One more lesson. Treat the employee like family. I work for a place where people have been employed for decades. I am moved by this. I don't want us to end up like all of these examples.
This is like a college course titl Don't hit too big for your britches 101.
I'm not at the top, but I have influence. I plan to put these lessons to use in my sphere of influence.
Also... it's just a great series. Well done!!! Patreon incoming!
I really love how you took some time to come up with a good design, and that you modeled your apparel yourself. That’s putting it much more effort than most CZcamsrs do.
something tells me he understands good business strategies
Linens n Things and Bed Bath and Beyond were both too expensive. Customer mistakenly thought that these stores were discount stores like Ross, Marshalls and the like because their physical size. I know my family did. Of course once we entered the store and saw the goods and the prices, we quickly. lost interest in returning. The last time I shopped there and found something I could not find anywhere else was in 2009 or 2010. I have not been in a BB&B since. Too bad, because had a good thing at first, but I think you are right, Jake, their BOD were stuck and were not keeping up with consumer trends. RIP, BB&B
Jake has come a long way. I've watched ALL of his videos and the narrations were outstanding. Keep on, keeping on Jake!
You and Company Man provide all the necessary details on these different ventures in the business world, and it's much appreciated to be able to come to these archives to learn everything there is to know about what all happened
My college town (Southern Illinois) didn’t have a Bed Bath n Beyond, only Target and Walmart. That being said, I guess what I’ll miss the most about that place is the made bed displays in the store. They always looked nice and comfortable (at least to me). It’ll probably be the only thing I’ll miss about it.
I miss that at Famous Barr in Peoria....I put together a lot of bedroom displays in the late 80's-early 90's
I set up so many bedding displays, when I worked at BBB, that I rarely make my bed at home anymore. Lol
Those displays were very time consuming to get that comfy look.
I never want to steam another set of sheets in my life.
Thanks Bed Bath & Beyond, your cameos on several movies will be remembered
This episode was really well done! Thank younfor covering this, I had been wondering what happened, it was basically overnight that they were gone. Congrats on the new merch 👍👍
I worked for them from 2016-early 2020. You could really feel the shift in 2028 when Mark took over. The old bosses never really cared if you took expired coupons, or pushed reward programs. Mark came in and started to have stores try and enforce dates on coupons, and push the Beyond + membership. He took away the brands the people wanted and tried to go the Target route and have their cheap alternatives. It's really hard to explain the mood shift, but you could feel it from the district manager. Was a great company and I have many good memories of it. RIP friend.
That explains the closing sale signs I saw plastered all over the BB&B today. Feels surreal.
I remember finding a stack of coupons in a Bed, Bath, & Beyond bathroom one time. I went to the front end and made it rain 20% off coupons on everyone in line. They always took expired coupons too. Their downfall does not surprise me, but BBB will be missed. The stores were immaculate and organized.
Right after graduating from university I bought most of my kitchen utensils from thrift stores. I didn't care if they had dents or scratches because I saved about 75%.
I hadn't been to a bed Bath and Beyond in years, but happened to see the one near a Target I stop by on the way home was closing (shortly before the company-wide liquidation began).
My impression were: "There's a lot of "as seen on TV look junk here. The original retail prices are ridiculous, and I could get similar home goods for less at the nearby Target while also being able to get other items and food in a cleaner, nicer, more modern environment."
I did get a few really good deals though. By that point most of what was left was 70% off. So, cheers for that.
Oh man, I was SO PUMPED to see this! Last weekend a friend and I went to a BB&B and I was like, "Man, I hope BSF does an episode on this, I'd love to know the story!" And HERE IT IS! So great!
Ahh I’m so glad! I hope you enjoy it!
@@BrightSunFilms I SUPER ENJOYED IT! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧
Fun fact: I was originally gonna work at this place at my local mall, but they turned me down for being Autistic (this was before I learned you’re not allowed to tell people at your work about your disability, or it might be something else as I could be wrong) Thank god I dodged that bullet!
Really?!
Well, another example as to why employee morale was low
i can tell
This is why I hate that my first boss at BK got promoted because he ended up picking a replacement who discriminated me for my disabilities (I was the only one there that was known to be special needs and it was public because first boss is very pro-disability and knows how to handle special needs employees so he’ll hire them if they need a job) and I ended up quitting out of frustration over how the replacement treated me.
Thankfully that b**ch got her karma some months later as the crappy way she was running the place was complained about a lot to the head hq of BK so they sent someone there to see what was going on and after finding out how poorly she ran things that person not only fired her as the manager of that BK but issued a statement to every other BK in the New England area to NEVER hire her.
Yeah she was straight up blacklisted by the company and though I am sad that BK got shut down as a result (as I liked everyone else working there minus one nut job and a teenage girl who constantly played hooky to avoid actually working), I was so happy to hear from my friend (they were still working there up to the closing and were relocated to a BK near where I live) what Miss Dictator (seriously that’s what the other employees called her behind her back, that there says how bad she is as a boss) got.
And yeah as a result of that treatment I’ve been turned off on working at any fast food place out of fear of a repeat incident. I’m also hesitant to apply to most other stores as I don’t know if the management will be like my first BK boss since sadly disability discrimination is still a big thing.
@@HogartHughes And I can tell you never learned compassion.
Wow, that actually sounds straight up illegal on Bed Bath & Beyond's Part. Based on the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), employers are not allowed to discriminate based on disability alone if you are otherwise capable of doing the job. Directly from the US Department of Labor's website: The ADA's Title 1"prohibits covered employers from discriminating against people with disabilities in all employment-related activities, including hiring, pay, benefits, firing and promotions. Covered employers include private businesses, educational institutions, employment agencies, labor organizations, and state and local government entities with 15 or more employees." I am positive Bed Bath and Beyond, a private business, has at least 15 employees and is therefore required to follow ADA's Title 1.
I thought they did the OPPOSITE of what they needed to do when they made the coupons more restrictive and harder to find. I'm a bargain hunter, and always looking for sales and deals. The fact that basically everything there was full price unless you had a coupon, combined with the vast number of alternative places to buy housewares was their end.
That was the genius mark tritton who rode the coattails of Targets Success and deceived BB&B that he was the reason and could bring the same change to BB&B he was an absolute joke. In his first few months he sent out a message to every store/team stating how he admired the US holiday of Thanksgiving (not american) and proceeds to announce that all BB&Bs will be open for Thanksgiving this year. Then next year all retailers decide to close for Thanksgiving and Tritton followed suit. Dude is an absolute moron.
Funny, BB&B is having a 50%-70% off store closing sale and the prices are still higher than regular prices elsewhere.
They want to squeeze any extra dollars from the consumer
As always Jake, great work and presentation. I live in Alberta and my first indication in 2019 that something was up was not finding the products I was used to. But what really made it obvious was the broken and damaged clearance section. They literally tried to sell broken items for high prices. My wife and I joked about how the clearance section was akin to a terrible garage sale. Much like Sears, they got too comfortable with return shoppers and took advantage of their loyalty while simultaniously scaring away new customers with rediculously high prices. Such a tradegy!
Interesting... I didn't realize just how large of a presence and how many stores BBB had. I also didn't know, but am unfortunately not surprised, at the stock buybacks and self-kickbacks that ultimately hamstrung them. Thanks for the timely video!
I only went to a BB&B for specialty items I couldn't find elsewhere and didn't have time to order online because it's for a project of some form. The impression I always got even when growing up was that it was an expensive store for people who had money. When I became an adult my impression was that it was an expensive store with cheap crap that I could get for a much lower price elsewhere and people with money don't shop at a BB&B. I'm not surprised they went under, their prices were way too big for their britches.
This channel just disappeared from my feed about 8 months ago, its finally re-appeared!!! Love these videos
Welcome back!
BB and Beyond and Toys R Us, and the other big names that have gone bankrupt haven't effected me in any way because all of these stores were out of my parent's price range when I was growing up. Now that I'm older and can work, they're still too pricey! Those major box stores already bought out/ outcompeted all the mom and pop stores of their kind loooooong before I was born, so maybe I can finally buy something nice from a local store like people used to do in the 50's. Maybe people wouldn't shop on Temu, Wish, and Shien despite how poorly they treat their employees if they actually had affordable options that didn't fall apart in less than a year? I would say all of these companies brought bankruptcy onto themselves and didn't actually help the communities they infested. They gave people unfulfilling minimum wage jobs and inflated the prices of everything they sold, how can I feel bad that they are gone?
I tried to buy something at Toys R Us years ago, and they wouldn't accept a check for $16 even with a bank issued guarantee card that covered checks up to $500. Never went back. As for BB&B my sister-in-law could use a 20% coupon on each item she purchased, she even told me they would take expired coupons. I went to BB&B was told only one coupon per order, and they did not honor expired coupons. My sister-in-law is white, I am not. Never when back to BB&B.
Bed Bath & Beyond is one of those stores that, for me, always existed in the background. I get that everyone's shopping habits are different, but I think I can count on exactly one hand the amount of times I've been in their stores. The sort of things they sell are things I feel I can find cheaper and more conveniently at Walmart, Target, or an estate sale. Again, everyone's shopping habits are different, that's just my experience with them. Excellent video either way, Jake.
My experience is exactly the same. I never understood what the attraction was to BEd Bath and Beyond.
It was the store you went to when JCPenney or Target didn't have what you wanted
@@jalapeno1119 Fair enough. I guess I just never needed anything niche enough for BBB to fulfill. Again, everyone's shopping habits are different.
I instantly recognized the 1985 TWA commercial that played for briefly a second in the intro of this video. So iconic.
It's sad to see cause I used to work at BBB in high school and there were some awesome people who worked there, wish the best to all my old coworkers
Jake IMO nails it, the pricing of their stuff and the fact that you can find similar stuff at other retailers for a cheaper price makes it little surprise that they went bankrupt.
I went to one that was having a close out sale last Saturday (May 13th, 2023). A lot of the stuff was already cleared out and things were 10-50% off from what I could tell but even then things were expensive for what they were. Appliances marked down but even then they were barely competitive with Kohl's or Best Buy and other items not even competitive against Target or Amazon. I saw a large assortment of plastic storage bins for food stuffs, over $250 marked down to $199.
Like many other companies the pandemic seems to hit Bed Bath and Beyond hard and probably was the thing that finally did them in. The supply chain issues, the economic impact on people's personal finances and so on.
People are hard pressed to go out of the way to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy something when you can go anywhere else and get similar stuff; e.g. Ross, Target, Walmart, Amazon and so on for a fraction of the price.
I literally just saw the sign of "Store Closing" at the Buy Buy Baby's near my job, and know I understand why.I work as a processer at Homegoods and open boxes and price tag the merch before it hits the floor and everything I saw in video (including the marble soap pump) I have seen at my job for reasonable prices.
BuyBuyBaby was one of the last places you could go and actually see a range of baby items. Other places have a couple but that's it. Gonna miss them when it comes time to stock up for a child.
I just wanted to say - I’ve been following you for years since your Rolling Acres video. Your editing is absolutely amazing! I love the growth of your channel and will always be excited to see new content from you ❤
Thank you so much!
Love it. High quality videos as usual. Keep em' comin Jake!