Bed Bath & Beyond To Close 150 Stores; Are FL Locations Affected?

FLORIDA — Bed Bath & Beyond said Wednesday it is closing 150 stores and cutting 20 percent of its workforce, though it’s unclear if the home goods retailer plans to shutter any of its Florida stores.

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.

The constriction is part of the chain’s turnaround push. The closures include “lower producing” banner namesake stores, and layoffs will be across corporate and supply chain staff, the company said in a news release ahead of a call with investors.

Sluggish sales have 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. It was the steepest drop in sales the chain had seen in years.

The company said it had received $500 million in new financing to shore up its business model before the important 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 the release, adding, “The customer underpins our decisions, and we are committed to delivering what they want while driving growth, profitability, and financial returns.”

Even before boutiques and malls were shut down by the coronavirus outbreak, traditional brick-and-mortar establishments saw a nosedive in revenue and popularity with the emergence of e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Walmart.