PORT ARTHUR, Texas — Bed Bath & Beyond has announced a list of locations that they are planning on closing first as part of an overall plan to shutter 150 locations nationwide.
Among the locations announced by the company is the location at Central Mall in Port Arthur.
The company said in August that they are making strategic changes to their business model that includes closing stores and laying off workers.
“There’s still an incredible degree of love for Bed Bath & Beyond," Mara Sirhal, the newly named brand president of Bed Bath & Beyond, told industry analysts. “We must get back to our rightful place as the home-category destination, and our goal is to achieve this by leading with the products and brands our customers want.”
Bed Bath & Beyond listed all of the immanent store closings on their website, which includes a total of two Texas locations. The other one besides Port Arthur is in Wichita Falls.
The company did not announce when the stores would officially close or when the next round of closures will be announced.
Bed Bath & Beyond's stock fell more than 20% in August and is down 65% in the last 12 months.
Mired in a prolonged sales slump, the company also announced it will revert to its original strategy of focusing on national brands, instead of pushing its own store labels. That reverses a strategy embraced by its former CEO Mark Tritton, who was ousted in June after less than three years at the helm.
As of May, the retailer operated a total of 955 stores, including 769 Bed Bath & Beyond stores, 135 buybuy Baby stores and 51 stores under the names Harmon, Harmon Face Values or Face Values.
Time is of the essence for the company heading into the critical holiday shopping season. It said it expects a 26% decline in comparable sales for its fiscal second quarter. It burned through $325 million of cash in the quarter.
Sirhal said the retailer wants to get back to being a place where shoppers find innovative items. For example, Bed Bath & Beyond was the first to bring items like the air fryer and the single-serve coffee maker to its customers, she said.
Neil Sanders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, said he applauds the strategic shift. But he said that task is “easier said than done" and will require much closer relationships with suppliers to secure unique offerings.
“If Bed Bath & Beyond simply stocks the same sort of things as can be found at Target, Walmart, or Amazon, then it will struggle to differentiate and will find margins compressed as it needs to match on price, " he said.
Bed Bath & Beyond has been facing lots of turbulence recently. Its shares made a monstrous run from $5.77 to $23.08 in a little more than two weeks this month, in trading reminiscent of last year’s meme-stock craze, when out-of-favor companies suddenly became darlings of smaller-pocketed investors.
But the shares fell back to earth after a deep-pocketed investor, activist Ryan Cohen, the billionaire co-founder of online pet-products retailer Chewy Inc., sold his entire stake in the company. In March, Cohen had purchased a nearly 10% stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, giving investors hope he could turn around the company’s finances.