Bed Bath & Beyond has announced a return to physical stores slightly more than a year after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which resulted in the closure of all of its stores. Now, thanks to a strategic partnership with a formal rival, Bed Bath & Beyond products will be available to purchase in various locations around the country.
Bed Bath & Beyond Works to Survive After Difficult Bankruptcy
Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April of 2023 after more than 50 years of doing business. This bankruptcy filing ultimately led to the company shutting down the remaining 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores it still had open, as well as its 120 buybuy BABY stores.
Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy and began a search for a buyer to help it out of its whopping $1.8 million debt. Eventually, this buyer came in the form of Overstock, the online home goods retailer.
Overstock acquired Bed Bath & Beyond in June of 2023 for $21.5 million. However, this acquisition did not include any of the company’s physical businesses, nor the buybuy BABY brand that is so well known in the United States.
Because of these facts, Overstock changed its name to Beyond Inc., and Bed Bath & Beyond became a 100% online home goods retailer.
Now, recent news has changed this initial plan. A new statement has revealed that Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store — a past rival — have joined together to create a strategic partnership.
This partnership is designed to offer both known brands in one physical place for its dedicated customers. This decision has also resulted in Beyond Inc. agreeing to invest about $40 million into The Container Store.
Thanks to this agreement, The Container Store will bring Bed Bath & Beyond products to its 102 physical stores.
Bed Bath & Beyond Returns to Physical Stores
Retailers have struggled in recent years to continue to bring in profits, particularly when customer traffic has fallen in brick-and-mortar stores. An ongoing period of high inflation has further hurt home goods retailers’ sales.
Therefore, this strategic partnership has been designed to help both Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store “return to profitable comparable store growth over time.”
Bed Bath & Beyond and The Container Store both have incredibly similar target audiences. Through this partnership, the companies are hoping to bring in more sales at their physical locations.
To do this, they are “utilizing and benefitting from Beyond’s intellectual property, customer data, network of brands, and affiliate relationships.”
By using Beyond Inc.’s data platform, The Container Store is further hoping to enhance its reach to its customers and potential consumers.
Satish Malhotra, the CEO of The Container Store, explained, “It will allow us to expand our reach across our combined network and position us to leverage Beyond’s e-commerce expertise to further our own omnichannel tools and capabilities.”
While much emphasis has been put on the return of Bed Bath & Beyond products in brick-and-mortar stores, this partnership will extend to various areas that could benefit both The Container Store and Beyond Inc.
