Bed Bath & Beyond has released the updated expanded list of its planned store closings, nearly 300 locations, as it takes steps to dramatically reduce its brick-and-mortar retail footprint in an effort to cut costs.
The Union, New Jersey-based company — parent of not only its namesake chain but Buy Buy Baby and Harmon — issued the latest shutdown roster in the wake of its announcement Tuesday that it was revving up its downsizing to bring its flagship store count down by almost half, to roughly 360 locations.
Bed Bath & Beyond, which was facing possibly having to file for bankruptcy protection, was given a lifeline Tuesday when it sold a stock offering of over $1 billion, giving the company breathing room to continue operations and pay off some owed debt. The retailer is struggling to mount a turnaround following mounting losses and declining sales last year.
Bed Bath & Beyond has issued a series of announcements about its plans to close stores since last summer, with the number increasing every time. In August, the retailer said it was closing 150 stores. The closings announced this year are in addition to those and total 290 and include pulling the plug on the entire Harmon beauty goods chain.
The new closing list, dated Tuesday, includes 236 namesake stores, the entire Harmon chain of 49 stores and five Buy Buy Baby stores. Bed Bath & Beyond identified the new stores set to be closed and combined those locations with a list, dated Jan. 30, of the closures — 87 Bed Bath & Beyond, all the Harmon stores and the handful of Buy Buy Baby locations — that were planned to be shuttered at that time. So the number of core Bed Bath & Beyond stores that will be shuttered in this latest cutback round has nearly tripled.
The for-now-final list of store closing are in addition to the 150 closings, a total of 440 to date.
As of Nov. 26, the company reported it had 949 stores, including 762 Bed Bath & Beyond locations, 137 Buy Buy Baby stores and 50 Harmon stores.
California will be losing 19 Bed Bath & Beyond flagships, followed by New York with 18 closing, and New Jersey and Texas, with 13 for both states.
Bed Bath & Beyond is also closing its nearly 800,000-square-foot warehouse at 2900 S. Valley Parkway in Lewisville, Texas, outside of Dallas.