UNION, N.J., March 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bed Bath
& Beyond Inc. (Nasdaq: BBBY) today announced that it would
temporarily close over 50% of its stores across all its banners,
within the United States and
Canada, to help reduce the spread
of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This includes the
majority of its core, Bed Bath & Beyond retail stores. Subject
to state and local regulations, the Company will continue to
operate stores which sell health care, personal care, infant care,
cleaning supplies, or food and beverages, to provide customers with
the essential products they need.
Mark Tritton, President &
CEO, said, "In this time of great uncertainty, our first priority
is the welfare of our customers and associates. We are
therefore taking this decisive action to help keep our communities
safe, while continuing to serve our loyal customers with the
essential cleaning, health and personal care products that they and
their families need at this time. We will continue to adapt and be
responsive as our customer needs change, and in line with public
health guidance and regulations."
As of the morning of Friday, March 20,
2020, the Company will take the following actions:
- Closing around 800 Bed Bath & Beyond store locations
until April 3, 2020, that do not have
a health and personal care department.
-
- Associates will be provided with pay and applicable benefits
during this period.
- Operating approximately 700 essential stores, including the
Company's buybuy BABY, Harmon and other concepts, as well as any
Bed Bath & Beyond stores that do have a health and personal
care department.
-
- To the extent state and local regulations permit, these stores
will operate under limited hours to provide essential products,
such as supplies for infants and babies, health and personal care,
cleaning products, food and beverages.
- Continuing our commitment to implement a number of policies
to help associates and customers remain safe and healthy.
-
- This includes enhanced cleaning routines across stores,
frequent cleaning of high-touch surfaces, practicing social
distancing while in-store, and ensuring adherence to public health
guidelines.
- Enhancing e-commerce and distribution capabilities to serve
more customers in their homes across all concept brands.
-
- This includes increasing local fulfillment capabilities by
utilizing some stores being temporarily closed to the public across
the US and Canada, to serve
customers in their homes across brands.
"Our mission is to make it easy for our customers to feel at
home and we remain committed to delivering for them, however we
can, during this difficult time," Mr. Tritton said. "We have a
remarkable team and robust contingency plans, supported by a strong
balance sheet, to navigate this unprecedented challenge."
As this situation continues to evolve, the Company is monitoring
guidance provided by multiple local, state, federal, and global
public health entities and stands ready to implement immediate
changes, as needed.
About Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and subsidiaries (the "Company") is
an omnichannel retailer that makes it easy for our customers to
feel at home. The Company sells a wide assortment of domestic
merchandise and home furnishings. The Company also provides a
variety of textile products, amenities and other goods to
institutional customers in the hospitality, cruise line, healthcare
and other industries. Additionally, the Company is a partner in a
joint venture which operates retail stores in Mexico under the name Bed Bath &
Beyond.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements,
including, but not limited to, the Company's plans in response to
the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Many of these forward-looking
statements can be identified by use of words such as may, will,
expect, anticipate, approximate, estimate, assume, continue, model,
project, plan, goal, and similar words and phrases, although the
absence of those words does not necessarily mean that statements
are not forward-looking. The Company's actual results and future
financial condition may differ materially from those expressed in
any such forward-looking statements as a result of many factors.
Such factors include, without limitation: general economic
conditions including the housing market, a challenging overall
macroeconomic environment and related changes in the retailing
environment; risks associated with the novel coronavirus
(COVID-19), including its impacts across our businesses on demand
and operations; consumer preferences, spending habits and adoption
of new technologies; demographics and other macroeconomic factors
that may impact the level of spending for the types of merchandise
sold by the Company; civil disturbances and terrorist acts; unusual
weather patterns and natural disasters; competition from existing
and potential competitors across all channels; pricing pressures;
liquidity; the ability to achieve anticipated cost savings, and to
not exceed anticipated costs, associated with organizational
changes and investments; the ability to attract and retain
qualified employees in all areas of the organization; the cost of
labor, merchandise and other costs and expenses; potential supply
chain disruption due to trade restrictions, political instability,
labor disturbances, product recalls, financial or operational
instability of suppliers or carriers, and other items; the ability
to find suitable locations at acceptable occupancy costs and other
terms to support the Company's plans for new stores; the ability to
establish and profitably maintain the appropriate mix of digital
and physical presence in the markets it serves; the ability to
assess and implement technologies in support of the Company's
development of its omnichannel capabilities; uncertainty in
financial markets; volatility in the price of the Company's common
stock and its effect, and the effect of other factors, on the
Company's capital allocation strategy; risks associated with the
ability to achieve a successful outcome for its business concepts
and to otherwise achieve its business strategies; the impact of
intangible asset and other impairments; disruptions to the
Company's information technology systems including but not limited
to security breaches of systems protecting consumer and employee
information or other types of cybercrimes or cybersecurity attacks;
reputational risk arising from challenges to the Company's or a
third party product or service supplier's compliance with various
laws, regulations or standards, including those related to labor,
health, safety, privacy or the environment; reputational risk
arising from third-party merchandise or service vendor performance
in direct home delivery or assembly of product for customers;
changes to statutory, regulatory and legal requirements, including
without limitation proposed changes affecting international trade;
changes to, or new, tax laws or interpretation of existing tax
laws; new, or developments in existing, litigation, claims or
assessments; changes to, or new, accounting standards; and foreign
currency exchange rate fluctuations. The Company does not undertake
any obligation to update its forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.