The bankruptcy and planned closing of Bed Bath & Beyond stores might not exert a big impact in Arizona, owing to relatively modest employment for the company here and a strong retail market that bodes well for finding new uses for the chain’s existing locations.

But customers should prepare to act quickly to pounce on sale items, return any unwanted merchandise and use remaining gift cards.

The New Jersey-based home-goods retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this week and said it plans to wind down its remaining stores by an unspecified date. Bed Bath & Beyond already had closed hundreds of its namesake stores and buybuy BABY locations over the past couple of years.

With a weak lineup of private-label merchandise and a lagging online strategy, Bed Bath & Beyond has struggled against the likes of Amazon, Target and Walmart. Sales slumped 33% in the quarter ended Nov. 26, 2022.

A move by a prior management team to focus on private-label brands alienated many shoppers, said Nooshin Warren, an assistant professor of marketing in the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management. "These were brands people didn't want to buy," she said.

Also, Bed Bath & Beyond scaled back on coupons and made other moves that frustrated customers, Warren said.

More than 300 Arizona jobs affected

The company, which started operating in the early 1970s, counted 953 stores in the U.S. and Canada roughly a year ago, but that has ebbed to around 480, with the number of Arizona locations trimmed to 13 currently from 22 a year ago. The company sells an assortment of cookware, décor, bedding, curtains and other items.

Bed Bath & Beyond currently lists nine metro Phoenix locations, two in Tucson and one each in Prescott and Yuma. Most will open for deep-discount sales starting April 26. The company’s stores average about 27 employees each, indicating about 350 Arizona workers overall. A company spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for a more detailed Arizona employment count.

Bed Bath & Beyond also averages about four supply chain workers supporting each store, with the company’s main logistics centers in Pennsylvania and California.

Most Bed Bath & Beyond store associates are part-time employees who earned around $18,600 in median pay in 2021, according to the latest company filing. The company said it expects to continue paying wages and benefits until the stores close.

Warren predicted that rival retailers such as Walmart and Target will try to hire some displaced employees.

Locations primed for new uses

Most of the store locations are leased, typically in shopping malls or strip centers. Brad Douglass, a retail specialist at real estate firm Kidder Mathews, doesn’t think the Bed Bath & Beyond locations will sit empty for long.

“The retail market in Arizona has remained very strong, post pandemic,” he said, supported by steady population growth and increasingly diverse employment.

Douglass, who’s also a senior vice president in Kidder Mathews’ Phoenix office, said many of the Bed Bath & Beyond stores are in good locations that could appeal to various users such as, for example, specialty grocers like Sprouts or Aldi, discount clothing or sporting-goods stores or interactive entertainment centers featuring indoor skating parks, putting greens and so on.

Douglass said he didn’t view the bankruptcy as likely to weaken the retail real estate market around the Valley. “It’s a chance to bring in healthy, high-traffic concepts,” he said.

Dates to note for sales, coupons, gift cards

The high traffic might start at Bed Bath & Beyond’s remaining locations this week. Most will feature “store closing sales” beginning April 26, though Warren warned that merchandise already is running low in some stores.

The company said it will accept returns and exchanges for items purchased prior to April 26, in accordance with its usual policies, until May 24. Customers can use gift cards through May 8 and redeem merchandise credits until May 15. Bed Bath & Beyond said it expects to stop accepting coupons as of April 26. Online shopping will continue.

The company said all sales will be final going forward.

Reach the writer at russ.wiles@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Bed Bath & Beyond closure will affect AZ workers, stores, sales