As Bed Bath & Beyond warns it could soon file for bankruptcy, at least one of the home goods retailer’s locations in Delaware is slated to close.
Closing sales will unfold “over the next few months” at the Bed Bath & Beyond in the Brandywine Town Center, according to a company spokesperson. They declined to comment when asked when the store will close.
In a public filing Thursday, Bed Bath & Beyond said it faces “substantial doubt” that it can continue operations. The company said it will consider all “strategic alternatives,” including entering bankruptcy protection.
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Bed Bath & Beyond has three Delaware stores: Brandywine Town Center, the Christiana Town Center off Route 273 and Coastal Highway in Rehoboth Beach. The company also operates the Buy Buy Baby chain, which has a store in the Christiana Town Center.
The company spokesperson declined to comment on whether the Thursday announcement would affect the other stores.
The Brandywine Town Center closure is part of a move announced in August to close 150 “lower-producing” stores.
“We are embracing a straight-forward, back-to-basics philosophy,” CEO Sue Dove said in a statement at the time.
As of last summer, Bed Bath & Beyond had around 32,000 employees and 900 stores. The company said Thursday it expects to report a 33% sales decline in the previous quarter and a net loss of $386 million, up from $276 million a year earlier. The sales decline was driven by lower customer traffic and reduced levels of inventory availability, they said.
“Bad Bath & Beyond is too far gone to be saved in its present form,” Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director of GlobalData wrote in an analysis. “A catalogue of missteps has run the company into the ground and has made it increasingly irrelevant. Only very radical action will allow it to survive and even if it does, it will be a shadow of its former self.”
The Delaware stores have already survived a few rounds of closures. In late 2019 and 2020, Bed Bath & Beyond closed around 75 stores.
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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
