[UPDATE] Burlington Buys a Bunch of Boxes from Bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond

Bankrupt retailer Bed Bath & Beyond is likely in its final days as a traditional brick & mortar store.  The company recently completed auctions for both its intellectual property (IP) and its store leases.  The store leases included those under both its namesake Bed Bath & Beyond banner as well as its subsidiary, buybuyBABY.  In Georgia, the auction included five Bed Bath & Beyond stores, of which discount retailer Burlington won three of the leases.  

In all, Burlington, New Jersey-based Burlington bid a total of $12 million to acquire 44 leases, or about $272,000 per lease.  The Georgia stores won by Burlington include those at Akers Mill Square near Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Edgewood Retail District near Little Five Points in Atlanta and Crossroads Marketplace on Watson Boulevard in Warner Robins.  

Surprisingly, fellow discount retailer TJX Cos., parent company of TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and Homesense, was apparently not the winning or backup bidder for any leases.

Winners of other Bed Bath & Beyond leases included: Michaels (9), Barnes & Noble (4), Haverty's (4), Aldi (1) Macy's (1) and Ollie's Bargain Outlet (1).  Atlanta-based PGA TOUR Superstore, the golf and tennis retailer owned by Home Depot-co-founder Arthur Blank, acquired a lease for a Tulsa, Oklahoma store.  The new store will be the second in the state following the upcoming debut of the retailer's first in Oklahoma City.

Landlords acquired 37 of their own leases back including Georgia stores in Buford and McDonough. 

Although not included in the list, Barnes & Noble had previously leased a large portion of the former Bed Bath & Beyond at The Avenue East Cobb for a new store.  Interestingly, Marshalls replaced a former Barnes & Noble in Edgewood Retail District in 2022 where Burlington will soon replace the adjacent Bed Bath & Beyond.  

In a separate transaction, Overstock.com, an online retailer known primarily for furniture and other household goods, won an auction of Bed Bath & Beyond's IP.  Overstock's winning $21.5 million bid was approved June 27 by a bankruptcy judge overseeing the case.  US Bankruptcy Judge Vincent Papalia approved the sale at a court hearing in Newark, New Jersey, saying that he was “gratified” to see a bidder emerge that would preserve Bed Bath & Beyond’s brand.  

The e-commerce home goods retailer will no longer go by its eponymous name online and will instead adopt the Bed Bath & Beyond domain name in the coming weeks, Overstock announced late Wednesday.

What would you like to see open in place of your former Bed Bath & Beyond store?  What retailer of yesteryear do you miss most?  What is your favorite all time retailer?

Please share your thoughts below.