Bed Bath & Beyond bounces back

[Imzadi]

Sort of. . .

Overstock .com has bought the "Bed Bath & Beyond" brand name and customer data when it went into bankruptcy for a mere $21.5 million.

Overstock will continue to stay an online only business, but now it has a name that is more expansive than being just thought of as having overstock goods.

In a Reuters article: https://www.reuters.com/business/re...rstock-rebranding-bed-bath-beyond-2023-06-29/

"An opportunity arose in bankruptcy to get the pieces that we loved and not have them burdened by the things we didn't like," [Overstock's CEO] Johnson said. "We've long liked the Bed Bath and Beyond name, but we didn't like the stores, the inventory, so don't expect stores from us."​

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Overstock's "generic" name has held the company back, and it does not really reflect the company's current focus on selling home goods and furniture online, Johnson said.​

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Before the Bed Bath & Beyond bankruptcy, Overstock thought that a rebrand would take years and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars, according to Johnson. Instead, Overstock company was able to buy Bed Bath & Beyond's name and customer data for $21.5 million at a bankruptcy auction.​

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The new name will help the company attract loyal Bed Bath & Beyond customers as well as new suppliers who were hesitant to sell their products on a website associated with the "taint" of liquidation, Johnson said.​

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Overstock already has a new Bed Bath & Beyond website in Canada, and it plans to go live with a U.S. website in August.​

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The new Bed Bath & Beyond, in addition to being online-only, may be less reliant on coupons than customers are used to, Johnson said.​

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"Our base pricing is better than what customers have experienced at Bed Bath & Beyond," Johnson said. "While they'll be able to add a coupon on top of it, I don't think they'll need to rely on the standard Bed Bath & Beyond "20% off" coupon that was almost ubiquitous."​

Meanwhile, a New Jersey-based baby products retailer, has tentatively won an auction for the intellectual property of Bed Bath & Beyond's Buy Buy Baby chain, court filings showed on Thursday.

Dream on Me, which sells strollers, cribs and other baby goods through a host of retail partners, won the rights to assets such as Buy Buy Baby’s trademark and domain after an auction on Wednesday, according to the filings. The filings did not disclose the price of the winning bid.

 

[Cadiewampus]

not sure in other locations but in ours when we went to the "liquidation sale " I did not see any discounts even though they were advertising 20-40% off. Wife and I both thought the price you were supposed to be getting a discount off of had been jacked up.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

not sure in other locations but in ours when we went to the "liquidation sale " I did not see any discounts even though they were advertising 20-40% off. Wife and I both thought the price you were supposed to be getting a discount off of hand been jacked up.

Agree. Same here. My husband, always on the lookout for a bargain, started going into BB&B when the closing announcement was made. The discount has stayed at 10% for the longest time. But I'm sure they jacked up the prices. I remember seeing a plastic pitcher about 9 to 10 inches tall (and narrow) for $29. Probably could get that for $1.25 at a dollar store. I've been looking for a new knife set with butcher block for a while now. Their prices were way too high, and incomplete sets. I did end up finding one on sale at Williams-Sonoma which is much nicer and a lot cheaper.

 

[Christine]

not sure in other locations but in ours when we went to the "liquidation sale " I did not see any discounts even though they were advertising 20-40% off. Wife and I both thought the price you were supposed to be getting a discount off of hand been jacked up.

I have found this to be true at any liquidation/going out of business sale that I've been to (at least in the last few years).

 

[_19disnA]

Yea, stopped shopping at Bed/Bath/Beyond even before the whole bankruptcy thing. Prices were always too high then they offered those 20% off coupons and still found the same items for less at various other stores. Got distracted selling too many other things like food/cosmetics and the shelves always seemed understocked. No plan to ever buy from them again no matter who owns them. The new CEO says lots of wonderful things but doubt anything changes. BBB claimed there were going to eliminate those 20% off coupons for the past several years and that never happened.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

I use to like BB&B years ago but over time my interest dwindled.

 

[barkley]

interesting-i was going to trader joes and decided since bb&b is next door to walk in and check it out recently. ONLY good deals were on items that had the bb&b logo so i grabbed 3 small (lunch bag size) resuable bags for 35 cents each and 6 xl 'tote bags' for 79 cents each (those suckers are made out of tarp like material and are HEAVY DUTY). i figured the logo stuff was the only thing they would'nt be able to sell off to liquidators. other than that-despite signs saying 30-70% savings nothing was more than 30% their traditional inflated prices so it could all be gotten elsewhere on non sales for less.

 

[Imzadi]

Hmm, the owners probably thought that selling all the merchandise to the highest bidder during bankruptcy would net more money.

The news said today is the last day for all the brick & mortar stores to be open.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I use to like BB&B years ago but over time my interest dwindled.

Same!

It seems like the past few years, their selection seemed to get smaller, and when the 20% off coupons became scarce, it became a lot less fun. I bet it has been pre-covid that I even went into a BBB store.

 

[Babs Johnson]

I just saw a commercial this morning. I didn’t pay much attention, but I think it said everything is now at least 50% off.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I miss our Bed, Bath & Beyond. I used to be able to catch good deals on coffee pods quite often. When I went for the big closing sale, it was pretty much a bust - not much there, and still fairly high prices on most of it.

I do think the new name will be good for the other company. "Overstock" was really an unfortunate choice if the "bargain" vibe was not what they were going for.

 

[fla4fun]

No plan to ever buy from them again no matter who owns them. The new CEO says lots of wonderful things but doubt anything changes.

Of course, you are free to patronize any businesses you wish. However, the only thing the new company bought was the rights to use the name and a data list of customers, who I assume they will contact to let them know about the name change and possibly convert them to new Overstock/BB&B customers. They didn’t buy the original business per se, they just wanted a name change. The CEO even states they wanted the name, but not the business as it was. So if anyone has shopped at Overstock and liked it, they have a good chance of liking the new BB&B.

I haven’t shopped at either, so I don’t have an opinion either way, but it seems unfair to hold a totally separate company accountable for mistakes another company made in the past. BB&B as we knew it is history. Personally, I will base any future decisions about shopping with them on how Overstock conducted their business in the past, whether Overstock has a lot of customer complaints, and how their product line changes under the new name. I might try them out, and I might not.

 

[Imzadi]

I do think the new name will be good for the other company. "Overstock" was really an unfortunate choice if the "bargain" vibe was not what they were going for.

I do too. I remember the commercials where they would tell us they don't just sell overstock items. Nope, didn't work well. Had they chosen a name originally like Wayfair, they could have sold us overpriced stuff very well.

 

[Nora03]

I loved Bed, Bath and Beyond. It was pricey, but I’ve bought good quality sheets, towels, comforters, and great kitchen gadgets. We only had one in our city and it was pretty far away. We didn’t get there often due to the pandemic, but always knew I could find what I needed. Another category that I liked was shower curtains, liners and accessories. All very good quality. I’m not sure we have another store that would have all those great items.

 

[_19disnA]

Seems like they paid overpaid that $21M for the name and mailing list of BBB, particularly if they no longer plan to have physical stores and do all their business online. Not sure how that will pay off but will have to see going forward.