6abc.com
The abandonment of brick and mortar stores has been occurring for some years, and has quite obviously been sped along by the rise of internet commerce. I'm not sure if it's still active, but there was a site called deadmalls.com which tracked all the once-busy and bustling shopping malls that became abandoned ghost towns, especially when larger retailers that once reliably served as "anchor stores" began to close down in larger numbers....K-Mart, JC Penney, Sears, Macy's and similar.
Exactly. While some people want to go to traditional malls to see and touch things before they buy, try them on, check the fit, etc. for others, that's simply no longer a necessity, especially with so many online retailers having liberal return policies where they'll even pay the costs of return postage - so there truly is no risk. I once worked with a director who had a hectic and busy work schedule, plus 2 kids and simply didn't have much time for shopping at brick and mortar stores. Instead she'd put her kids to bed, go sit in her bath tub with a glass of wine and her iPad. She'd order 5 outfits. If 2 arrived and looked as they did in the photo, they fit well and she liked them, while 3 were not her cup of tea, she'd keep the 2 she liked, the retailer would send her a pre-paid label for the stuff she didn't want, she'd drop it by the mailroom at work and get a speedy refund. She felt that type of shopping worked best for her situation and life schedule.
While I bought plenty of stuff there and I'll miss their stores for sure, my primary issue was that both Bed, Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY could be pricey. Most times I went to Bed Bath and Beyond was when I had one of the 20% off coupons they tended to distribute fairly often, and I'd also go there sometimes after the holidays when they usually had a lot of merchandise left over from the Christmas season and would deeply slash prices to try and get rid of it all quickly. A few years ago I attended a baby shower for a co-worker who had a gift registry at buybuy BABY. IMO their prices were out of line vs. similar products at other retailers.
The last time I looked at deadmalls.com It was out of date pretty bad. I've been watching more of videos on YouTube from places like Ace's Adventures and Dan Bell that are more up-to-date On what malls and stores have closed.
www.goodmorningamerica.com
When they started selling just their own brands, we quit going entirely. Now there is nothing they had that I can't find with more variety of brands and prices on Amazon. Heck, even Walmart has the same stuff online, but cheaper!
These days it's adopt and push ecom or you will die out. Even then it's hard to compete with the likes of Amazon, Target, Walmart and others. Major retailers that haven't are paying the price and are dying out.
Bed Bath and Beyond spent all their money trying to manipulate their stock price. Nearly $12B in dumb stock buyback schemes they engaged in for years.
Actually, a lot of investors approve of stock buybacks as it reduced dilution and increases the equity of underlying and remaining shares.
Radio's customers are advertisers. Nearly everyone I know in radio management understands that the business is about providing large audiences so they can send a sales message.
Not only that, but even before e-commerce took off in a huge way and most all shopping was done at "stores", a lesson I was taught as a child is that, in most (maybe not all) cases when you go to a specialty store that only features one thing - kitchen accessories, hardware, home decor, bedding, baby supplies, toys, what have you - in most cases they charge at least a bit of a premium vs. more "general" stores like Walmart and Target for similar items. In Bed Bath and Beyond's case, even the items they sold like toiletries, personal items and even snack foods were more expensive than the CVS just 2 doors away. I'm not "cheap" by any means, but if I can get the same bedding set for $50 from the internet with free shipping vs. paying $90 for something nearly identical at Bed Bath and Beyond, for me the logical choice is to buy the same thing at 1/2 price.
Can't think of much that could have been worse.
From that article:
That's true, but the only thing I would add; is I thought BB&B stores became too cluttered with just stuff. Trying to find any particular item was a challenge. End caps full of 'As Seen On TV' branded-stuff cheapened the appearance. I think in the end, they went too far into the Beyond part.
