HOME STORE PACKS IT IN

The Albuquerque area is about to have one less Bed Bath & Beyond with the closing of the chain’s Ventura Place location along Paseo del Norte NE.

The New Jersey-based retailer, which sells everything from kitchen gadgets to shower curtains, will shutter the Northeast Heights location in late February, said a store manager, who referred all other questions related to the closure to the company’s media relations department, which did not return calls for comment.

A sign at the 8850 Holly NE location this week says a “storewide clearance event” is underway and suggested that customers visit the San Mateo, Cottownwood Commons and Rio Rancho stores, which still are in business.

Last summer, Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO told analysts that as leases come up, the company would renegotiate terms with landlords but that it contemplated closures of some 80 to 100 stores in the next few years, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha, a content service for financial markets.

U.S. retailing, an industry that employs one in 10 American workers, is experiencing a profound disruption, thanks to combination of technological change, massive overbuilding and a seismic shift in how consumers shop. In 2017 alone, 2,800 stores went under, taking 55,000 jobs with them, and retail bankruptcies are up 31 percent. Big names like Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy’s are struggling.

The 28,000-square-foot Bed Bath & Beyond store going out of business is located in the Ventura Place shopping center, which includes Trader Joe’s, Jinja, Ulta Beauty, Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union and Pharmaca.

No word yet on what might replace Bed Bath & Beyond. Representatives from Base 5 Retail, a commercial real estate firm that is seeking to lease the space, could not be reached for comment.