This is the latest step in an ongoing turnaround effort for Bed Bath & Beyond, which struggled for years with weak sales and rising competition. It’s a critical part of this reinvention of the company to have a supply chain that meets the customer where she is.” “We haven’t because of this inefficient system. “We have to have the inventory in the right place at the right time,” John Hartmann, Bed Bath & Beyond’s chief operating officer, said in an interview. The new, larger centers will help streamline the process. The effort is designed to cut replenishment times at Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy BABY stores to 10 days from the current 35.Įxecutives acknowledge that the existing fulfillment process can be cumbersome, with products moving from vendors to smaller facilities before eventually ending up at stores or in customers’ homes. to develop a pair of facilities-one in Pennsylvania slated to open later this year and one in California next year. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.The home-goods chain will partner with logistics specialist Ryder System Inc. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. Maybe this buys time and goodwill for yet another lifeline and keeps the basement door closed for now, because in bankruptcy is when shares really can become worthless.Ĭopyright © 2023 NPR. But each one is more valuable than before, maybe no longer worth pennies, but back to a few dollars. It's a financial trick that fuses a bunch of shares into a single one, meaning fewer shares are out there. SELYUKH: The company's latest gambit is called a reverse stock split. And so Bed Bath is throwing every Hail Mary to avoid that.ĭAMODARAN: Thinking about every exit hatch that they can find because you're on life support here. Getting delisted doesn't automatically mean shares hit zero and stop trading, but they usually go to a sort of dodgy flea market of stocks, what's known as over-the-counter markets - not a place for prominent, healthy companies. The Nasdaq, the exchange where Bed Bath shares are listed, will eventually kick out a company whose stock price stays under a dollar for too long. It's still a 70-cent stock, but you've gotten 100% return. That leaves mostly speculators - chasers of a quick profit.ĭUQUESNAY: It's pretty easy for a stock to move a couple of cents, and that's a big percentage gain - you know, a pop from 35 cents to 70 cents. Even traders who bet against the company are usually gone by the time you hit penny stock. SELYUKH: Given months of bankruptcy warnings, these are long odds, which is why duQuesnay suspects at this point people trading Bed Bath shares probably aren't really thinking of the company's long-term future. SELYUKH: As long as someone is out there in the market betting that Bed Bath is worth something, maybe it will turn around or even get acquired.ĭUQUESNAY: They are going to have a price, even if it's one penny. SELYUKH: But as long as there's a glimmer of hope for Bed Bath, duQuesnay says.ĭUQUESNAY: It's pretty hard for a stock that's still trading to actually hit zero. And they do what every horror movie character does, which is open the basement door.ĭAMODARAN: You know, this isn't going to end well. The teenage boy or girl who pauses outside the door to the basement. Damodaran has an ominous view of its chances.ĭAMODARAN: Bed Bath & Beyond at this point resembles that character in a horror movie.ĭAMODARAN. Bed Bath still has a few hundred stores and the Buybuy Baby chain, but it's been facing pretty fundamental problems - losing shoppers and, therefore, money, struggling to compete online and lately to even keep its shelves stocked. SELYUKH: Aswath Damodaran is a finance professor at New York University. Rinse, repeat.ĪSWATH DAMODARAN: At this point, you're getting what I call the desperation capital. It's Bed Bath fighting for survival, warning of a bankruptcy again and again, then getting a lifeline from a lender or an investor. SELYUKH: Blair duQuesnay is a senior adviser at Ritholtz Wealth Management. Is all it takes to be a Bed Bath & Beyond shareholder.īLAIR DUQUESNAY: We call this a penny stock when we're trading below a dollar. But how low can this stock or any stock actually go? NPR's Alina Selyukh reports.ĪLINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Ten years ago, the stock price of Bed Bath & Beyond reached $80. Of course, that's a sign of a company in trouble - near bankruptcy. Buying one share of Bed Bath & Beyond now cost only 31 cents.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |