The Scramble to Take Over What Bed Bath & Beyond Left Behind
Competitors of Buy Buy Baby, which Bed Bath & Beyond owns and is also being liquidated, are seeing benefits, too. Babylist, an online registry business, said the number of registries created on its platform in the last few weeks since Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy was 35 percent higher than a year ago. More than 1,200 registry accounts have been transferred to its site, Natalie Gordon, the company’s chief executive, said.
Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby suppliers have been revising their strategies in recent months. Many held back inventory and devoted less resources to the retailer as it tried to work through a turnaround plan. Still, because Bed Bath & Beyond is known for its ability to carry a vast array of products, it continued to attract smaller companies trying to raise their profiles.
“I do think that there’s going to be some lost opportunities for some brands,” said Steve Greenspon, the chairman of the International Housewares Association and chief executive of the home storage brand Honey-Can-Do, which stopped selling with Bed Bath & Beyond last year.
Christina Carbonell and Galyn Bernard, the founders of the gender-neutral clothing brand Primary, are rethinking their strategy to sell within stores as Buy Buy Baby goes out of business. Shortly after their apparel hit shelves in April last year, they felt the impact of the retailer’s financial troubles. In August, when Bed Bath & Beyond rolled out its turnaround plan, Buy Buy Baby cut its order with Primary, as it did with several other suppliers. Inside stores, they saw that their merchandise inventory was low.
The experience caused the founders to focus on becoming profitable without relying on the sales from the Buy Buy Baby partnership, which accounted for about 10 percent of their business, they said.
Source: The New York Times
