Bed Bath & Beyond

Company's History

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a chain of retail stores. It sells a range of domestic merchandise, such as bed linens and related items, bath items, and kitchen textiles; and home furnishings, including kitchen and tabletop items, fine tabletop, basic housewares, and general home furnishings. The company also offers food, giftware, health, and beauty care items, as well as infant and toddler merchandise comprising furniture, car seats, strollers, feeding, bedding, bath, health and safety essentials, toys, learning and development products, clothing, and a selection of seasonal and holiday products. It operates stores under the names of the Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB), Christmas Tree Shops (CTS), Harmon and Harmon Face Values (Harmon), and buybuy BABY. As of February 28, 2009, the company operated 1,037 stores, including 930 BBB stores, 52 CTS stores, 40 Harmon stores, and 15 buybuy BABY stores in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was founded in 1971 and is based in Union, New Jersey.

Company Overview

Founded in 1971, Bed Bath & Beyond has grown from a two store operation that just sold bed linens and bathroom accessories to a supply chain giant with 1,100 stores all over the United States and Canada.

Bed Bath & Beyond is the leading U.S. decorative home furnishing and domestic merchandise company with $7.83 billion in net sales in 2009. The company is most known for its flagship chain Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB), a store that sells everything from the stated bedroom and bathroom furnishings to cookware and home decor. However, since 2002, the company has expanded its product line and business by acquiring three subsidiaries: Christmas Tree Shops (giftware and household items retailer), Harmon Stores (health and beauty care retailer), and buybuy BABY (infant and toddler merchandise retailer). In 1992, the company engaged in an aggressive Expansion Program and since then has increased its total number of stores from 34 to 1,100 in 2009, which operate in 49 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

Like many other retailers that sell discretionary goods, Bed Bath & Beyond do not do well during slow economic times. Consequently, the 2007-2008 recession had a negative impact on Bed Bath & Beyond as the company's net income and comparable store sales fell 24.5% and 2.4% respectively in 2008. However, as consumer demand for discretionary goods rebounded in 2009, the company emerged from the recession with $600 million in net income, a 41.4% increase, and a 4.4% increase in comparable store sales.

Supply Chain Stores

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB): With a total of 965 stores, the Bed Bath and beyond retail chain is the leader in the decorative home furnishings sector in the United States. BBB sells many different categories of products including: bedroom and bathroom furnishings, cookware, home decor, furniture, lighting, and cleaning products. The chain offers many name brand home furnishings and domestics merchandise for lower prices and better service than department store competitors because they ...