Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Bed, Bath & Beyond, announced on X on Wednesday that his company would no longer open stores in California because the state made it “nearly impossible” for business to succeed.
Earlier this week, Lemonis had announced the latest hopeful steps in the company’s return from bankruptcy, for which it filed in 2023. In a bullish statement released on Monday, the company said (emphasis removed):
“Accelerating growth and profitability for the Bed Bath & Beyond brand requires capital allocation discipline, increased use of data science, improvements in our asset light BedBathandBeyond.com platform, and the return of some of America’s most trusted consumer brands to its Omnichannel offering,” said Lemonis. The Bed Bath & Beyond comeback is underway with its first store conversion in Nashville, Tennessee which has experienced significant traffic and revenue alongside nationwide media coverage with a de minimis capital investment. Over the next 24 months, the companies plan to convert additional Kirkland’s locations into small to midsize format Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY stores, and will continue to accept the legendary Bed Bath & Beyond coupon, no matter how old, both online and in-store.
The renewed brand combines its billion-dollar BedBathandBeyond.com platform with localized, capital-efficient stores offering curated assortments in small to midsize locations, providing an improved customer experience with great products available at the right time, place, and price points by triangulating modern technology and transaction trends with enterprise consumer data.
Lemonis’s statement is the latest pushback by industry against California, which Gov. Gavin Newsom boasts is the world’s fourth-largest economy, but which also currently has the nation’s highest unemployment rate.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Read the full article here