After years of struggling to stay afloat, two retail giants have announced plans to close all their stores nationwide, including locations in the Augusta Exchange shopping center.
Bed Bath & Beyond located at 221 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway and buybuy BABY located at 242 Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway will both close their doors permanently after Bed Bath & Beyond, the parent company of buybuy BABY, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.
ABD contacted both Augusta stores, which had recorded messages that said, “We have made the difficult decision to begin winding down our operations.”
An employee with Bed Bath & Beyond said they don’t have a closing date yet, but an employee at buybuy BABY provided an estimated date.
“The estimated date is June 30, but we don’t have an exact date yet,” the employee said.
According to the buybuy BABY website, both companies began closing stores on Wednesday, April 26, and customers can no longer shop using their apps. All unfulfilled orders placed on or prior to that date have been canceled.
According to a Jan. 2023 article from CNBC, Bed Bath & Beyond had close to 32,000 employees in Feb. 2022.
“But since then, the company’s employee count has gotten smaller,” the article said. “In August, it said it would cut about 20% of its corporate and supply chain workforce and close about 150 of its namesake stores.”
The company was founded in New Jersey in 1971. At one time, it had more than 1,500 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada, but that number has been reduced to about 360 locations. buybuy Baby, which was founded in 1996, was bought by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2007 and has about 120 remaining locations.
For more information, visit buybuybaby.com/ or bedbathandbeyond.com/.
