Bed Bath & Beyond closes Harmon stores
Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss news that Bed Bath & Beyond has closed Harmon stores as bankruptcy looms for the retailer.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: Bed Bath and Beyond is making a move to shut down its Harmon brand stores in an effort to conserve cash as the retailer continues on its downward trend. Is the end near for Bed Bath and Beyond. I mean, that's a very [? fine ?] "Sozzi's Takes" today. Is that really in question at this point? I don't know. I don't even know. What is Harmon?
BRIAN SOZZI: Well, you have to question until it happens I suppose. So this is a story Yahoo! Finance broke late on Friday. So a more accelerated pace of store closings at Bed Bath and Beyond. A couple of months ago, they said they would close 150 stores. But now saying or telling [INAUDIBLE], they will close 87 more stores in addition to that 150.
Plus, they're also closing 52 Harmon stores. And Julia, it really is basically a beauty products type of store where you can get beauty products at a good deal. Never was a big focus for the company, it was always seen as a brand that they might cut. And now, they're cutting it. Why? Because they have to conserve cash at this critical point in time. So those stores in fact closing.
We had of course reached out to Bed Bath and Beyond for comment. Them, of course, just confirming this. I should [? say, ?] [? they ?] see Julie Strider, Bed Bath and Beyond spokeswoman, telling us and explaining why they're closing these stores. And it really should not be any surprise, Julie and Brad, here.
You're seeing sales really take a dive, a real nose dive at Bed Bath and Beyond over the past couple of decades. You could see it really falling off a map there from 2017 right on to this present day. And now the sales declines are, in fact, getting worse because the inventory is not being shipped to the stores in a timely manner because of their various credit problems. And if you cannot stock your shelves, you cannot drive sales. You cannot bring in cash flow. And it's eventually all just becomes a big black vortex.
Which brings me to my take, essentially right now, Bed Bath and Beyond is known in retail as a zombie retailer. It's there. The stores are there. You can still probably go in there for now and get a towel, get a toothbrush if you need it, or some cups for your house. But by and large, the inventory is unlikely to be current. And chances are if you go back in a couple of days after your most recent visit, the shelves will probably be bare.
BRAD SMITH: Well, it's a question of the value experience for the consumer too. If the consumer doesn't think that there is any value in spending time there, or putting gas in the tank and spending any of that gas on your trip to Bed Bath and Beyond, or even walking into the store, then that just continues on with Bed Bath and Beyond struggling to move the product that they do have in store.
BRIAN SOZZI: It's a waste of time going there. You want to get all of your shopping done in one day. And it's still high gas price environment. Go to Target. Go to Walmart. You can do all of your grocery shopping. And in the case of Target, you can have actually just sit in your car and have the groceries brought out to you for free. So it makes a lot more sense to me than going to Bed Bath.
JULIE HYMAN: I'm still just really enjoying some zombie sauce.
BRAD SMITH: [INAUDIBLE] Crushing it. We've replaced the Grinch sauce with the zombie sauce.
BRIAN SOZZI: I like it. It all make sense. It fits.
BRAD SMITH: Coming up, everyone, there's zombies sauce.
