Bed Bath & Beyond to close 3 more Conn. stores
Troubled home goods retailer Bed Bath & Beyond announced this week that it would close about 150 additional stores, with three more of its Connecticut locations set to shut down within the next couple of months.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s upcoming closings include stores in Guilford, Manchester and Norwalk, according to employees at those locations who answered the phone on Tuesday. Closing signs also confirm the imminent closures.
Those closings join a list of planned shutdowns of Bed Bath & Beyond stores in Enfield, Fairfield, Hamden, Southington and Wethersfield. Recent closings have also affected locations in Stamford and Waterford.
In a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bed Bath & Beyond said that it planned to expand the number of closings in its “store fleet optimization program” to more than 400 locations, “including closure of ... approximately 150 additional lower-producing Bed Bath & Beyond stores, which builds on closure of approximately 200 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and approximately 50 standalone Harmon stores in the U.S.”
“The company has initiated incremental store closures in its Bed Bath & Beyond banner with an ultimate operating goal of approximately 360 stores, in addition to approximately 120 buybuy BABY stores, across the U.S.,” the company said in a news release Tuesday. “In response to evolving shopping preferences today, this target store base includes the company’s most profitable locations and best geographic presence for customers that can enable an optimal omni-experience. The digital channel is expected to rise to a higher proportion of sales with improved channel profitability.”
A message left Tuesday for Bed Bath & Beyond’s corporate communications team that sought more information about the closings in Connecticut was not immediately returned.
Closing dates have not been finalized, but employees said they expect the Norwalk store to close in late March or early April, the Guilford store to close sometime in March and the Manchester store to close between late March and early May.
In the meantime, shoppers at those establishments can take advantage of significant discounts. For instance, signs promote 10 percent off the lowest ticketed prices at the Norwalk store. As for the other two locations in Bed Bath & Beyond’s 10store network in Connecticut, the Brookfield and Simsbury establishments are staying open, at least for the time being, according to employees who answered the phone Tuesday at those sites.
It is unclear how many employees in Connecticut will lose their jobs as a result of the closings. No Bed Bath & Beyond layoff notices had been posted on the Connecticut Department of Labor’s website as of Tuesday evening. The federal Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires companies to inform the labor department of mass layoffs in many, but not all, situations.
In Norwalk, city officials said that they stand ready to help affected employees.
“We encourage anyone who may experience job loss by this potential closure to contact our Community Services Department at City Hall,” Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said in a written statement. “Norwalk has a strong workforce development program in place and can connect those in need of job prospects with training programs and workforce development opportunities. Residents can call 203-854-7999 and select prompt four to be directly connected to a member of our Community Services team to help them navigate this process.”
Rilling also expressed confidence that the Bed Bath & Beyond storefront would be able to attract new occupants. It is located at 542 Westport Ave. in a mixed-use complex that also includes an AMC Royale 6 movie theater and an Edge Fitness Clubs center.
“While we hate for anyone in the community to lose their job, the potential vacancy of this property leaves the door open for other business owners or entrepreneurs to grow or expand their business here in Norwalk,” Rilling said. “We feel optimistic, as we’ve also seen new tenants and companies enter the marketplace, creating new employment opportunities and revitalizing our city in new and meaningful ways.”
The closings reflect Union, N.J.-based Bed Bath & Beyond’s dire fiscal condition. It said last month that it was examining options that included selling assets or restructuring its business in bankruptcy court.
Highlighting its woes, the company reported last month a $393 million loss for its fiscal third quarter that ended on Black Friday weekend, with sales down by 33 percent from a year earlier. The deficit pushed the company’s losses to about $1.1 billion for the nine-month period ending Nov. 26, 2022.
“While the company continues to pursue actions and steps to improve its cash position and mitigate any potential liquidity shortfall, based on recurring losses and negative cash flow from operations for the nine months ended Nov. 26, 2022, as well as current cash and liquidity projections, the company has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Bed Bath & Beyond said in a news release on Jan. 5.