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Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

nytimes.com

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Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#141

Post by linsomniac »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #133

Anecdotally, the last time I went to Bed Bath and Beyond, it was an absolute ghost town. No one was there, the prices were absolutely garbage, and the inventory was no better than anything you'd find literally anywhere else. I looked around and thought to myself, "Wow, I bet their corporate rent costs a fortune to just be here, and they're probably burning cash hand over fist." I'm not surprised in the slightest. Con…

>The prices are garbage

I get the feeling that BBB, like Kohl's and Joann's, are places you just don't shop unless you have a coupon, because there's always a 30% coupon.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#142

Post by SoftTalker »

bearjaws wrote: post #31

This is a huge loss IMO, buying kitchen supplies and bedding on Amazon is complete shit. Target isn't much better due to lack of variety and types of bedding. I've bought the same bed sheets for 5+ years, a few months ago I bought new ones since some bleach got spilt on one set, it comes in and I could tell immediately the quality was far worse. One wash later, its ripping & fraying. Thankfully I could return them. S…

I agree about Amazon (I never buy anything there anymore) but BBB was pretty shit too, in terms of products. Lots of plastic garbage made in the third world, maybe a few name brand untensils and small appliances.

Last things I bought there were new pillows, they turned into bags of cement within a few months.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#143

Post by nemo44x »

neurobama wrote: post #52
humanlion87 wrote: post #8

I find the whole situation fascinating. Bed Bath continued to sell hundreds of millions of shares while they were preparing for bankruptcy and retail investors (or meme stock investors) continued to buy them. I assume Bed Bath did all the paperwork that is necessary (like calling out risks, that the raised capital will go to creditors first, etc) for such a stock sale. But it is clear they were doing it out of bad-fa…

The whole stock market in 2023 makes no sense to me, not just Bed Bath and Beyond. So many companies no longer pay dividends. So many classes of stock are now non-voting shares. Common stock shareholders usually get nothing if a company goes bankrupt and liquidates. So if I don't get dividends, can't vote, and am not entitled to a share of the company's assets, what is the actual value in owning stock? Do I just wait…

> Common stock shareholders usually get nothing if a company goes bankrupt and liquidates.

That's that whole risk and reward thing. Equity is often the last in line for anything when a company is in trouble. You need to pay employees, vendors, bond holders, other loans, etc first. Pretty much everyone before a share holder sees a dime.

> what is the actual value in owning stock?

They could pay dividends one day but dividends have fallen out of fashion because the taxes on them aren't good. So many share holders don't want dividends but rather for companies to buy back shares, making their shares more valuable.

> Do I just wait for the share price to go up, sell at the peak, and pass my shares on to the greater fool?

If you can do that reliably then you will be the richest person on Earth. There are many great companies worth investing in.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#144

Post by crooked-v »

jandrese wrote: post #93
Animats wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to buy a mattress. Mattress review sites are all phony. Amazon is all phony reviews. Mattress FIRM is hugely overpriced. Bed, Bath, and Beyond's brands were just names they'd acquired. That entire industry has managed to shoot itself in the foot. Probably better to order from an actual manufacturer on Alibaba.

Mattresses are a huge racket in general. Think about how often you need to buy a mattress and then consider how many stores in you area sell only mattresses out of expensive storefronts full of salesmen. The margins per mattress have to be astronomical to support a business model like that. But on the other hand they are very heavy and bulky which makes them expensive to ship and since people generally need to try se…

The places like that around here seem to make their money off expensive massage recliners and other deluxe furniture, where the mattresses are just there to get people in the door every so often.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#145

Post by andylei »

d136o wrote: post #98
humanlion87 wrote: post #8

I find the whole situation fascinating. Bed Bath continued to sell hundreds of millions of shares while they were preparing for bankruptcy and retail investors (or meme stock investors) continued to buy them. I assume Bed Bath did all the paperwork that is necessary (like calling out risks, that the raised capital will go to creditors first, etc) for such a stock sale. But it is clear they were doing it out of bad-fa…

I wonder how much of it is explained by all the company retirement plans that are set to auto invest via an index fund. They says it’s retail meme stock buyers… but what if it’s everyone who doesn’t have time to look at things and these publicly traded companies are now just selling into those reliable biweekly/monthly retirement account contributions.

BBBY is not in any major indices

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#146

Post by nemo44x »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #77
itake wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is buybacks are better than dividends for tax purposes, because with dividends you pay income tax and buy packs you pay capital gains.

Dividends pay the exact same tax rate as selling stock which is how you make money from buybacks. The difference is that buybacks allow you to take the income in the future and shift the tax burden timing. Both dividends and stock selling are normal income tax rate if you've held the stock for less than 6 months and capital gains rate if you've held for more.

They aren't buying your shares back if you aren't selling them. The buyback makes each share worth more. You don't sell. You have something more valuable than before and now you can borrow money against it. That's the point.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#147

Post by contingencies »

bb123 wrote: post #71
Animats wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to buy a mattress. Mattress review sites are all phony. Amazon is all phony reviews. Mattress FIRM is hugely overpriced. Bed, Bath, and Beyond's brands were just names they'd acquired. That entire industry has managed to shoot itself in the foot. Probably better to order from an actual manufacturer on Alibaba.

Ikea is a good option in this market. And generally for household basics.

Agree, their mattresses are decent. Bought an expensive one from a seller with a guarantee recently, had to refund it as it sucked which turned in to a month long process. In the end, it was donated to charity and replaced from Ikea. Ikea's come in only two styles: firm (IMHO commonly ordered, more profitable for Ikea, but less likely to be considered comfortable by more than one person and more likely to lose shape) and extra firm (safe for more than one person, lower profit margin for Ikea, typically longer lasting).

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#148

Post by dragonwriter »

neurobama wrote: post #52
humanlion87 wrote: post #8

I find the whole situation fascinating. Bed Bath continued to sell hundreds of millions of shares while they were preparing for bankruptcy and retail investors (or meme stock investors) continued to buy them. I assume Bed Bath did all the paperwork that is necessary (like calling out risks, that the raised capital will go to creditors first, etc) for such a stock sale. But it is clear they were doing it out of bad-fa…

The whole stock market in 2023 makes no sense to me, not just Bed Bath and Beyond. So many companies no longer pay dividends. So many classes of stock are now non-voting shares. Common stock shareholders usually get nothing if a company goes bankrupt and liquidates. So if I don't get dividends, can't vote, and am not entitled to a share of the company's assets, what is the actual value in owning stock? Do I just wait…

> So if I don't get dividends, can't vote, and am not entitled to a share of the company's assets

As a stockholder, you are entitled to a share of the remaining assets after debts are paid at dissolution.

Of course, the nature of bankruptcy liquidation is that there tend not to be remaining assets.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#149

Post by [deleted] »

crooked-v wrote: post #135
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, but it’s increasingly frustrating as an average person. Apartments around me keep appreciating in value every year, rents keep going up astronomically even when the houses stay empty. My income went up, but housing in my area went up nearly 2x. I’m being priced out of areas I’ve lived in forever. I feel like a social contract has been violated. Everything, from products to housing seems to be targeted a…

Housing prices keep going up in the US because, fundamentally, there's not enough housing and hasn't been enough housing built for decades [1]. In most big cities, this is a self-inflicted problem caused by bad zoning and by planning and permitting processes that can take years and add huge amounts to home prices. (This is a big part of the reason there's so much "luxury" housing; adding a superficial high-end gloss…

[deleted]

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#150

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #115
neurobama wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole stock market in 2023 makes no sense to me, not just Bed Bath and Beyond. So many companies no longer pay dividends. So many classes of stock are now non-voting shares. Common stock shareholders usually get nothing if a company goes bankrupt and liquidates. So if I don't get dividends, can't vote, and am not entitled to a share of the company's assets, what is the actual value in owning stock? Do I just wait…

Others have mentioned buybacks, but the broader point is that if a company is consistently profitable, it will eventually pay dividends (or do buybacks). The board, who decide what to do with the company's money, have fiduciary obligations to the shareholders. They can hold cash reserves to cover future liabilities and they can re-invest profits in growing the business, but ultimately when the board cannot identify p…

> If the company were to wind up while still solvent,

Has this ever happened to a publicly traded company?

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