Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 336 posts

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#161

Post by rchaud »

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #75
gizmo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bed Bath followed the email scammer strategy of making their scam so obvious only the most financially illiterate people could fall for it. Hard to pull of, but once you've got an investor base that's willing to believe anything you can dilute them repeatedly and they'll still believe it's 5D chess.

Eh, frankly, I think that does a disservice to the people buying the stock. Were a bunch of people buying into the meme stock hype? Sure. Does that make them financially illiterate? Well, the folks who bought Hertz sure look pretty damn smart in hindsight even though at the time they were being described in similar ways, so... who's to say if they are illiterate or just have a different view of value and risk?

> who's to say if they are illiterate or just have a different view of value and risk?

When their opinions come exclusively from an echo chamber, there's effectively no difference. Visit r/BBBY and you'll find plenty who are ready to hold the stock all the way through BK.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#162

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

justinpombrio wrote: post #72
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.

Consider the Foam Factory. We've bought a mattress and separately a foam topper from them and they've been great. You can tell they're legit because their products are listed in tables and because the styling on the website is completely out of fashion. https://www.thefoamfactory.com/mattress/memorymattress.html

Holy hell you're not kidding. It's like I'm browsing a site in 1999.

It's pretty refreshing, though. The entire page loads in under 1/4 of a second for me.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#163

Post by Invictus0 »

jandrese wrote: post #90
Hasz wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, Costco does a good job of balancing quality and price.

But terrible at offering selection. If you don't like the color, well, tough because that's the one they stock. Maybe if you're lucky they'll have a second color or style for sale.

That's what sheets are for...

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#164

Post by midwesternerer »

jimbob45 wrote: post #156
crooked-v wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I wish this narrative would die. It's probably true that there's not enough housing but it's also true that AirBNB is sucking up many of the vacancies and apartment ownership consolidation is allowing owners to endure vacancies longer than they should be able to. You're simply never going to convince everyone that building more is the answer when there's such low-hanging fruit in front of everyone's eyes that you ref…

I don't understand why you are suggesting Airbnb isn't "fair" demand on the housing stock.

Also it is really hard to believe that Airbnb is a meaningful impact on housing prices outside of certain touristy locales. My suburban neighborhood has had 5+ offers on every house that has come for sale in the last year and there are no Airbnbs in the neighborhood and only two within a five mile radius.

The only real answer is to build more--not depend on the government to artificially constrict supply by regulating vacation rentals.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#165

Post by paulddraper »

rvba wrote: post #134
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything has been fundamentally detached from reality, from stocks to housing. Houses can sit empty without tenants for years but they’ll only go up. Companies can be unprofitable for literal decades but they’ll keep finding funding and buyers. Commercial properties can bleed tenant but the prices will only be up. In a world of shrinking growth , stalling productivity, and dying demographics, the market behaves lik…

Markets dont follow logic because central banks pump incredible amounts of dollars via money creation. Quantitative easing, 0% interest, massive inflation - are all just facets of the same problem - that central banks dont work for the common people. Market looks irrational, but it is rational - money is "free" - so zombie companies can exist. Inflation just ruins the low and middle class, but who cares - it is conve…

> Licence to create money out of thin air is like license to steal.

Is the purchasing power of your savings account shrinking 6% a year from inflation, or it is shrinking 6% a year from bank robbers?

Same effect either way.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#166

Post by Kamq »

justinpombrio wrote: post #72
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.

Consider the Foam Factory. We've bought a mattress and separately a foam topper from them and they've been great. You can tell they're legit because their products are listed in tables and because the styling on the website is completely out of fashion. https://www.thefoamfactory.com/mattress/memorymattress.html

> You can tell they're legit because their products are listed in tables and because the styling on the website is completely out of fashion.

I have noticed that the closer something looks to a 1995 HTML skeleton, the more I trust it these days. I assume anything else has been run through a layer of marketers.

I wonder if they're ever gonna pick up on that?

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#167

Post by Eumenes »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #118
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…

Everything has been fundamentally detached from reality, from stocks to housing. Houses can sit empty without tenants for years but they’ll only go up. Companies can be unprofitable for literal decades but they’ll keep finding funding and buyers. Commercial properties can bleed tenant but the prices will only be up. In a world of shrinking growth , stalling productivity, and dying demographics, the market behaves lik…

Why would an empty house not go up in value? If anything, if its unused, it'll likely require less upkeep/repairs.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#168

Post by paulddraper »

rblatz wrote: post #92
nate wrote: post #63

I'm gonna miss it. I always thought it had an interesting Job to be Done when I observed my behavior with the store. We had one a few blocks from my home, and though I order from Amazon like I'm trying to win some kind of game, I'd go to BBB when I needed something that day and didn't want to spend any time on research. It was almost guaranteed that the thing I'd buy would just naturally be at the top of a review sit…

That's the role Costco has been filling for a lot of Americans recently. Most of the time you are going to find something at a decent price, that may not be best in class but at least it's going to be near the top of the price/utility curve.

100%

You might not find what you're looking for at Costco.

But if you do find it, you can be confident it's a great value.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#169

Post by bluedino »

Eumenes wrote: post #167
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything has been fundamentally detached from reality, from stocks to housing. Houses can sit empty without tenants for years but they’ll only go up. Companies can be unprofitable for literal decades but they’ll keep finding funding and buyers. Commercial properties can bleed tenant but the prices will only be up. In a world of shrinking growth , stalling productivity, and dying demographics, the market behaves lik…

Why would an empty house not go up in value? If anything, if its unused, it'll likely require less upkeep/repairs.

Abandonded houses are often stripped of copper, etc and have squatters, vandals, problems from not being maintained or lived in...

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#170

Post by spaceman_2020 »

Eumenes wrote: post #167
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything has been fundamentally detached from reality, from stocks to housing. Houses can sit empty without tenants for years but they’ll only go up. Companies can be unprofitable for literal decades but they’ll keep finding funding and buyers. Commercial properties can bleed tenant but the prices will only be up. In a world of shrinking growth , stalling productivity, and dying demographics, the market behaves lik…

Why would an empty house not go up in value? If anything, if its unused, it'll likely require less upkeep/repairs.

It simply means that housing is being bought up by people who don't need their investments to return any cash flow.

Which is great if you're a wealthy oil tycoon from UAE or a Chinese billionaire. But not so great if you work in the city and want to buy a house for your family.

Post reply on HN