Retailer Buy Buy Baby's brick-and-brick mortar comeback is ending after roughly a year.
The specialty baby goods chain, which has 10 stores on the East Coast, said it will be shuttering those locations by the end of the year. It started offering discounts and holding store-closing sales at its shops in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Virginia on Friday after announcing its plans.
"We're transforming into a digital-first brand, focusing all our energy on providing an exceptional online shopping experience," Buy Buy Baby said on its website. "With this shift, we've come to the difficult decision of closing our physical stores by the end of this year. We understand this may be disappointing news, and we want all our customers to know this wasn't a choice we took lightly. The loyalty and support of our customers over the years have meant the world to us. The relationships we've built in-store have been truly special, and we're incredibly grateful for the time shared with us."
The original Buy Buy Baby chain's 120 stores were closed last year after its parent, Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond, filed for Chapter 11 and ended up liquidating. But Buy Buy Baby was reborn last November by the company that had purchased its intellectual property and trademark rights for $15.5 million, namely Dream on Me Industries of Piscataway, New Jersey.
It said it was reviving the chain. Dream on Me acquired a handful of the retailer's leases for just over $1 million and said it was reopening Buy Buy Baby stores at those sites.
The demise of Buy Buy Baby's brick-and-mortar foray comes during a difficult year that's been marked by a number of Chapter 11 filings by struggling retailers, who have shut several thousand stores as consumers curbed their spending.
Ironically, Buy Buy Baby unveiled its store-closing plans the same week that the company that bought Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual property rights acted to regain a presence in physical retail for that brand.
Beyond Inc., the Utah-based firm once known as Overstock.com, said it was investing $40 million in the Container Store, based in Coppell, Texas, to help the financially ailing chain. In exchange, some Bed Bath & Beyond products will get shelf space at the Container Store's 102 U.S. retail locations, marking the brand's brick-and-mortar return.
Beyond purchased Bed Bath & Beyond's IP in June last year, and has been operating the brand as an online-only retailer.
Buy Buy Baby, which on its website said it recognized "the need for a strategic reset," didn't immediately respond Friday to an email from CoStar News seeking comment.