Bed Bath & Beyond’s Last Holiday Season Marked By Empty Shelves

An employee at a Bed Bath & Beyond store hid the empty shelves by covering them with banners. The lack of real estate was caused by shipments of KitchenAid mixers, kitchen gadgets and curtain rods stopping. Some parts of the store were overstocked.

The inventory wasn't showing up as usual. The store in the Midwest received 400 cartons of inventory five times a week during the holiday season in 2021. Wamsutta sheets were permanently missing from those boxes.

The employee, who asked not to be identified because she still works for the retailer, said that the foot traffic began to diminish. Customers complained about not being able to find certain products so she tried to order them online but was frustrated by the website.

She said that stock is so low in stores that it was part of her dialogue with many of her customers.

Bed Bath & Beyond's sales were expected to drop 32% in its latest quarter due to high out-of-stock levels and dwindling foot traffic. The retailer is expecting a loss of $386 million in the third quarter.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said that the outcome was unsatisfactory during a time when consumers were spending more money.

While Bed Bath & Beyond used to have stores bursting at the seams with a seemingly endless array of items, many have been left bare in the last few months. DataWeave said that out-of-stock levels ran at 45% and 42% in November and December.

Some suppliers stopped sending shipments due to the retailer's inability to pay on time. In September, the company held a summit to convince suppliers to keep providing them with inventory.

The CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond blamed reduced credit limits for not being able to stock up on items that customers wanted. The retailer was using revenue from the holiday period to purchase inventory and replenish shelves.

She said trends improved when in- stock levels increased.

Maybe it's too late. According to Placer.ai, foot traffic to the stores fell 23% in October. There wasn't a month last year where it was higher than the previous year.

Mark Tritton was ousted as the retailer's CEO last year after he replaced national brands with private label items. Popular products were missing from the store shelves. The CFO of the company took his own life days after the company announced a round of layoffs and store closings. It was swept up in meme stock mania, with billionaire investor Ryan Cohen taking a nearly 10% stake and dumping it months later.

Employees on a message board commiserated about shoppers asking when the store is closing or if the company is going bankrupt. They miss spending their shifts organizing and stocking inventory, instead of trying to make their stores look full or help shoppers order out-of- stock items online.

The retailer may have seen its last holiday season. One employee suggested that they have a backup plan since they won't be around long.