Bed, Bath and Beyond Bankruptcy?
April 30th, 2008 by Julie
For some reason, a lot of people seem to think that Bed, Bath & Beyond is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection from creditors, but that’s not the case at all. From what I’ve been able to gather, it’s actually competitor Linens ‘N’ Things that was facing the prospect of bankruptcy, stemming from their inability to pay $16.1 million in interest fees for the first quarter of 2008.
But after doing some more research, I learned that Linens ‘N’ Things ended up deferring the payment and staving off bankruptcy — at least for the time being.
This is good news for consumers, who were perhaps looking at a repeat of what happened when Sharper Image filed for bankruptcy and stopped accepting their own gift cards.
For now, it appears that you won’t have to worry about that. Linens ‘N’ Things has not filed for bankruptcy yet, and the Bed, Bath & Beyond bankruptcy rumor was just that — a rumor.
Still, it might be a good idea to start using up those gift cards if you have them!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm and is filed under Shopping News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:51 pm
This is interesting. I wrote a post on my blog a couple of weeks ago about Linens ‘n Things having trouble and narrowly avoiding bankruptcy for the time being, but very few people read it. Suddenly, it’s getting tons of hits yesterday and today. I checked my stats and saw that they were mostly coming from people who Googled “Bed Bath Beyond Bankruptcy.” Are they just confusing it with LNT? I’m not sure. But if so, why now? Made me wonder if something was going on with BBB that I didn’t know about! -Julia
May 1st, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Honestly, I don’t understand the whole BBB bankruptcy panic either. As I wrote in my post, it was LNT that was having the trouble, not BBB. But like you, I received tons of hits for this, so I’m not complaining
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:54 am
FYI. I received a forwarded email in the last couple of days that said that BBB and LNT had declared bankruptcy and use any gift cards soon. I Googled BBB and bankrupt becuase I didn’t think that was true (and it isn’t) and that brought me to this web site. That’s probably why you are getting so many hits lately.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
Hmm, so a forwarded email started all this? Interesting. No wonder there wasn’t any real news about the subject… it was just a rumor right from the beginning.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
I received an email too, just today
which says as follows:
he following companies just filed for Bankruptcy:
Hollywood Video
Levitz
Sharper Image
Performance Team Freight
Linens n Things
Circuit City
Bed, Bath and Beyond
If you have gift cards from the above list use them ASAP, they will not
be valid for much longer.
PASS THE WORD.
so like many others, I googled BBB Bankruptcy, and landed here.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I received the same email. Funny how we all put in bbb and not the other stores
May 3rd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I’m so glad to know what may have generated so many searches for that. It was really puzzling to me! -Julia
May 5th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I have worked for BBB part time for years (good friends are hard to leave :)) Today I am inundated with email saying sorry about me losing my job. I now see why…
Also, the general population does not realize that we are two different entities. Go figure.
Glad to see that this site shows up as one of the first listings when you google BBB and bankruptcy.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Bed Bath and Beyond owns all of their merchandise, no consignment, no line of credit no debt. Zero debt. BBB is probably one of the healthiest retailers out there. Their only problem is that they keep opening new stores, expanding more than wall st wants them to, so their stock kinda doesn’t do anything. LnT having “hard times” is probably because BBB buried them.
So, don’t worry about your BBB gift cards. Heck, they’ll probably even continue to accept LnT coupons after they’re gone. Terrible place to work (possibly just my store…) but I gotta hand it to them, a GREAT place to shop.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Got the same fear tactic email as above this morning and googled BBB! Glad to hear all is well at BBB! What a hoot!
May 7th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I received the same e-mail just now as well. I also immediately looked up BBB instead of any other company. Good to know it’s healthy for now. Ughhh…this economy…
May 7th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I googled Circuit City first. Doesn’t look good for them. Googled BBB second and got to this website. Appears that some is just rumor and some not. Will check the other listed stores.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Some of you have asked why your comments are not appearing on this post. I have my spam blocker set to intercept any comments that contain links to external sites, so that could be the reason why.
Sorry about that, but if this precaution wasn’t in place, I’d get hammered by spam bots, so it’s a necessary evil!
May 12th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
*BIG sigh* With our wedding coming up in just 2 months I recieved the same email from multiple friends because we are registered there. I’ll try to pass the word on. Thanks!
May 14th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Got the same email. Googled BBB bankrupt also (first search) and ended up here. I worked for BBB for three years as Ops Mgr. Awful place to work. Can’t think of a worse company to be employed by. However, I must admit, what makes it the worst place to work is one of the reasons that makes it one of the best places to shop.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
[…] nothing to back this rumor up. If anyone has heard differently, please fill us in! Go to the Chronic Consumer to read more about this […]
May 15th, 2008 at 10:06 am
The list I received a couple weeks ago had all the same names EXCEPT BBB…today I received the same list from another person with BBB at the bottom. All research says BBB is benefiting from the LNT reported bankruptcy and they are doing fine…Keep shopping!
May 16th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I received the same e-mail. I think the reason everyone searches for BBB first is because it’s the only one on the list that hasn’t already been reported on the news. I was confused by it because with LnT filing for bankruptcy, it would only help BBB’s market position. I searched for BBB bankrupt because I also have my wedding registry there and wanted to make sure that I didn’t need to go somewhere else.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Just goes to show you, just because sent it to you in an email does not make it true. It’s still amazing to me how many people fall for anything and everything they get in their inboxes.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:39 am
And the e-mail chain continues! I just got that e-mail and was very upset. I’m glad to see that it’s not true about BBB but I wish I could unforward the e-mail to the few friends I sent it to. Now I’m spreading rumors as well!
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
[…] First off, it’s not real, it’s a big fat lie. […]
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I just called my niece who just got married in april because i recieved the same email and that is where she was registered. I told her if she had any gift cards she should cash them in ASAP. Well even if she does it won’t be a total lose. like she said better safe than sorry. told her i wasn’t sure if it was true but yeah!
May 28th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Well I got the same email, just a bit later than the rest of you and did the same Google search and landed in the same place. Funny how that happens, right? It seems LnT did file on 05/02.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
i work for bb&b too, and i am so SICK of answering the “are you going out of business” question. please please please, if anyone is still getting these rumors sent to them in emails, encourage your friends and family to check out our publicly published profits (profits, not debt) and tell them that it isn’t true. i’m gonna lose it soon…
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:03 am
People are dumb. Bunch of freaking sheep will believe any email that comes across their desk… Watch out for that guy who slashes ankles from his hiding place under your car and don’t forget to take advantage of that Neumann Marcus Cookie recipe and for god’s sakes forward that petition around so the gov’t doesn’t force us all to have to pay virtual postage on email!!!!
Baaa-aaaa-aaaa! Sheeple make me sick.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Hey the reason for the big increase in interest is an email circulating with a list of companies filing bankruptcy. BBB and LNT are on the list along with a host of other Sharper Image included.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
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July 2nd, 2008 at 7:12 pm
I work for BBB and was puzzled today when a customer INSISTED that BBB had filed bankruptcy. I told her I knew nothing about it and that LNT had filed bankruptcy and are closing numerous stores. She told me she read it online so I searched BBB and Bankruptcy and here I got. From what I’ve observed, our business has only increased this year over last.
July 6th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Hey listen people ! I was a manager for this company they have bought two very large companies just this year and Buy Buy Baby which had a huge amount of dept and not even as profitable as reported befor the purchase and they bought the Christmans Tree Stores again a purchase filled with dept and a company not as profitable as reported………now the BBB stores are reducing payroll and buyers are putting a limit on what stores can order and how much? And sales are down as much as 40% and for the first time in thier history they are limiting coupon use to one per customer they are not taking L&T coupons and not taking out of date coupons this is not a track record for a profitable company
July 9th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I too got the forwarded email, but knew immediately something was fishy since I stay current on this type thing. My google search also landed me here.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
NO BBB IS NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS. I WORK FOR THEM AND WE ARE VERY PROFITABLE. MR KNOW IT ALL FROM A PREVIOUS REPLY DOES NOT KNOW IT ALL. WE ARE STILL TAKING LNT COUPONS EVEN THOUGH SEVERAL STORES HAVE CLOSED. WE STILL TAKE OUR OWN COUPONS- EVEN EXPIRED AND WE TAKE 1 COUPON PER ITEM. SO IF YOU BUY 4 ITEMS YOU CAN USE 4 COUPONS. WE DID BUY BYE BABY BUT NONE OF US ARE HURTING. OUR SALES ARE GREAT. DON’T WORRY ABOUT US- DOING GREAT. VERY SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT LINENS AND THINGS-THOUGH. IN THIS TIME I DON’T WISH JOB LOSS ON ANYONE. AGAIN REALLY SORRY.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Whoever else said that its a terrible place to work…it is! But a healthy company….no worries.