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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Will Bed Bath & Beyond sink like Sears or rise like Best Buy?
It's hard to overstate the bumpiness2 of the rollercoaster ride that Bed Bath & Beyond has been on this year: its rise and crash as a meme stock, a leadership shakeup, trouble with suppliers, a turnaround to trump3 a previous turnaround, store closures, job cuts, and the shocking news of its financial chief's death.
The home-goods giant faces persistent4 speculation5 of a protracted6 but looming7 demise8 as it prepares to report its latest financial results on Thursday morning.
"It sort of looks like a decision tree from where it is now," Morningstar analyst9 Jaime Katz said: Will Bed Bath & Beyond reimagine itself and pull away from the brink10, like Best Buy? Or will it continue to patch holes only to keep sinking, like Sears?
"You know, our best guess is that it comes in somewhere in between," Katz said.
How did this once-vaunted retail11 behemoth get here?
As recently as 2018, Bed Bath & Beyond had over 1,500 stores. It had hoovered up rivals, BuyBuy Baby and World Market. Even during the Great Recession, when many retailers13 folded, Bed Bath seemed to only grow.
Its stores had secret powers that shoppers loved
Yes, there was the iconic blue 20% off coupon14 that's so ever-present that even mobster Whitey Bulger had one in his kitchen drawer.
But the chain had another secret sauce behind the scenes: Unlike most retailers, Bed Bath & Beyond let local managers choose what to sell in each store, catering15 to local tastes.
"I remember seeing it very distinctively16 when I visited a Miami store," said Amy Laskin, a former Bed Bath content marketing17 executive. "Right when you walk in the doors was this wild, brightly colored, Disney-themed stuff — it was so Miami. And I thought, this will never sell anywhere else."
But the stores eventually became part of the problem
As online and mobile shopping exploded, Amazon, Target, Wayfair and others put up formidable competition. Bed Bath & Beyond spent years seeking — and never really finding — its online identity.
"I would go into one meeting and it would be, 'We need to be ... the destination for home, more upscale, home decor, more furniture,' " said Laskin, who left Bed Bath in 2017 and is now with consultancy Prophet.
"The next conversation would be, 'We need to be more competitive with Amazon. We need to be the destination with everything.' ... The next thing you know, we were carrying diamond jewelry18 like Costco does."
Bed Bath & Beyond whipped up a dizzying website. But its heart remained in its stores, with their stacks of cookware, walls of trashcans and piles of pillows. In the late 2010s, sales started dropping and a series of turnarounds began.
A high-profile new CEO pursued a big idea: Bed Bath would launch its own brands
In 2019, Mark Tritton arrived from Target. As Bed Bath CEO, he pushed to declutter stores and close 200 underperforming ones, to weed out national brands and launch Bed Bath's own labels, like Everhome and Nestwell.
This strategy had worked like a charm at Target, perfected over years. Bed Bath & Beyond rushed to replicate19 that success in months — right as the pandemic began.
Shoppers were already wary20 of visiting stores, so many never got to check out the new labels; some found them lacking and began complaining that they missed familiar brands.
The pandemic was a boon21 for home goods, but Bed Bath & Beyond missed out
The new-brands turnaround strategy exacerbated22 the industry-wide supply chain crisis, leaving top products like KitchenAid mixers missing from Bed Bath's shelves. The retailer12 played catch up, racing23 to roll out pandemic necessities like curbside pickup24.
Earlier this year, activist25 investor26 Ryan Cohen of Chewy and GameStop fame bought a stake in the company, prompting his followers27 on Reddit and YouTube to pump up Bed Bath's stock. CEO Tritton and other leaders were ousted28.
Then, just as suddenly, Cohen sold his entire stake. What ensued was what's become a familiar timeline of a rudderless retailer: The company announced closures of another 150 stores and job cuts for a fifth of its corporate29 and logistics staff. Suppliers began hesitating about sending more stuff to Bed Bath, worried they won't get paid.
Interim30 CEO Sue Gove is touting31 "a straightforward32, back-to-basics philosophy," while the company scrambles33 to bring back national brands and shoppers are pulling back.
Now, the store has inflation to deal with; plus, shoppers are over their crazed pandemic-era clamor for furniture, bedding, kitchen appliances and home decor.
"We remain concerned by the magnitude of the sales declines," Telsey Group analyst Cristina Fernandez wrote, "and believe it will be challenging to win consumers back in a softer economic climate."
1 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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2 bumpiness | |
n.崎岖不平 | |
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3 trump | |
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭 | |
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4 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
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5 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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6 protracted | |
adj.拖延的;延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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7 looming | |
n.上现蜃景(光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼)v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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8 demise | |
n.死亡;v.让渡,遗赠,转让 | |
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9 analyst | |
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家 | |
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10 brink | |
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿 | |
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11 retail | |
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格 | |
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12 retailer | |
n.零售商(人) | |
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13 retailers | |
零售商,零售店( retailer的名词复数 ) | |
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14 coupon | |
n.息票,配给票,附单 | |
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15 catering | |
n. 给养 | |
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16 distinctively | |
adv.特殊地,区别地 | |
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17 marketing | |
n.行销,在市场的买卖,买东西 | |
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18 jewelry | |
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝 | |
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19 replicate | |
v.折叠,复制,模写;n.同样的样品;adj.转折的 | |
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20 wary | |
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的 | |
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21 boon | |
n.恩赐,恩物,恩惠 | |
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22 exacerbated | |
v.使恶化,使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 racing | |
n.竞赛,赛马;adj.竞赛用的,赛马用的 | |
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24 pickup | |
n.拾起,获得 | |
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25 activist | |
n.活动分子,积极分子 | |
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26 investor | |
n.投资者,投资人 | |
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27 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
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28 ousted | |
驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 ); 革职; 罢黜; 剥夺 | |
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29 corporate | |
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的 | |
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30 interim | |
adj.暂时的,临时的;n.间歇,过渡期间 | |
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31 touting | |
v.兜售( tout的现在分词 );招揽;侦查;探听赛马情报 | |
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32 straightforward | |
adj.正直的,坦率的;易懂的,简单的 | |
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33 scrambles | |
n.抢夺( scramble的名词复数 )v.快速爬行( scramble的第三人称单数 );攀登;争夺;(军事飞机)紧急起飞 | |
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