Bed Bath & Beyond To Shutter 150 Stores, NJ Closures Possible

NEW JERSEY — 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 New Jersey stores.

Bed Bath & Beyond has 28 stores in the state. The company has about 900 total locations, meaning about 1 in 6 would close under the new plan.

The constriction is part of the chain’s turnaround push. The closures include "lower producing" banner namesake stores, and layoffs will occur 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 — including a $375 million loan from investment firm Sixth Street — 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."

Bed Bath & Beyond employs about 32,000 people — less than half of the company's workforce of 65,000 in 2018, according to Macrotrends data.