![]() ![]() In 2013, it reported net sales of $11.5 billion, according to its annual report. While other surviving big-box retailers are trying to navigate the troubled waters with mergers or makeovers, Bed Bath manages to operate successfully and profitably. One by one, stores like Caldor, Ames, Service Merchandise, Linens & Things, Circuit City, Gimbel’s, Mervyn's, and Alexander's have either shifted all operations to e-commerce or shuttered completely. Add to that the dominance of online shopping, and Amazon in particular, and the landscape has gotten exceptionally bleak. While other surviving big-box retailers are trying to navigate the troubled waters, Bed Bath manages to operate successfully and profitably.īut over the years, cross-category big-box retailers Wal-Mart and Target have cornered the market and hurt competitors. The model worked across all retail areas, from home goods (Bed Bath) to electronics (Best Buy) to groceries (Costco). In the pre-e-commerce era, retailers wanted to keep shoppers in stores by offering them anything and everything. Toys "R" Us was the first retailer to adopt this "category killer strategy," explains retail analyst Warren Shoulberg. now owns a total of 1,512 stores, according to its most recent earnings call Bed Bath is its largest subsidiary with 1,020, or 67%, of its total stores.īed Bath’s merchandising concept-a massive space offering a plethora of products-is known in the retail world as "big box." It’s the opposite approach of carefully curated home stores like Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, but was widely popular when Bed Bath first hit the market. Currently operating six different businesses, Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc. In 2007, it acquired Buy Buy Baby, and in 2012, both Linen Holdings, LLC and Cost Plus World Market. It bought health and beauty retailer Harmon’s in 2002, and the nothing-but-tchotchkes Christmas Tree Shops the year after. The company’s portfolio grew in other ways when the new millennium hit. By 1991, it hit $134 million in sales, going public on the NASDAQ stock exchange one year later. Two years after that, the name was changed to Bed Bath & Beyond to reflect its full range of "domestic merchandise and home furnishing," as the company puts it. By 1985, it had expanded to 17 locations. As per the name, it initially only sold items for the bedroom and bathroom. With the company's considered real estate decisions, dogged merchandising approach, and unprecedented customer care policies, it’s no wonder Bed Bath is ahead of every other retailer in the home goods space.īed Bath & Beyond was started in 1971 by founders Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein, who originally called it Bed 'n Bath and opened the first store in New Jersey. But there’s more to it than meets the eye. The store thrives off this retail strategy: sensory overload, in seemingly the worst way possible. Suddenly lost in a sea of fluffy towels, immersion blenders, and chip bag clips, Klar found everything he needed and plenty he didn't, walking out with a new frying pan, some wine glasses, a corkscrew, K-cups, steak knives, a Brita, and hangers. Weaving through Bed Bath’s aisles to get to the shower curtain, he was forced to walk past pretty much everything else in the store. Of course, Klar, who is holding three massive shopping bags full of kitchenware, knows exactly how it happened. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here. The archives will remain available here for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. ![]()
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