2 FL Bed Bath & Beyond Stores Shuttering As Part Of Mass Closings

FLORIDA — Two Bed Bath & Beyond stores in Florida are among 56 nationwide targeted for closure by the national retailer, which last month said it would eventually shut down 150 locations and cut 20 percent of its workforce in an attempt to turn around the struggling home goods chain.

Included on a recently updated list of stores slated to close are the Sunrise location at 12801 W. Sunrise Blvd. and the Sanford location at 111 Towne Center Blvd.

The closures will include “lower producing” banner namesake stores, and layoffs will be across corporate and supply chain staff, the company said in late August.

Bed Bath & Beyond has 60 stores in Florida, including stores in Brandon, Clearwater, Destin, Fort Lauderdale, Lakeland, Miami, Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Tampa.

In 2020, the retailer closed three Florida stores in Casselberry, Pembroke Pines and Port St. Lucie.

Sluggish sales carried into the third quarter, the company said, with in-store sales dropping by 26 percent for the three-month period ending Aug. 27, compared with the same period in 2021 — the steepest drop in sales the chain had seen in years.

The company said it received $500 million in new financing to shore up its business model before the fourth-quarter holiday shopping season. Plans include returning national brands to store shelves, a strategy interim CEO Sue Gove said is intended to make the company once again “a preferred shopping destination.”

“We are embracing a straight-forward, back-to-basics philosophy that focuses on better serving our customers, driving growth, and delivering business returns,” Gove said in a company news release. “The customer underpins our decisions, and we are committed to delivering what they want while driving growth, profitability, and financial returns.”