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

171–180 of 336 posts

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#171

Post by paulddraper »

zackmorris wrote: post #38

I have no great love for BBB, but they saved me countless times when I was looking for last-minute gift ideas. The store closest to me was always packed, and prices were just enough higher than other stores that I figured they were making bank. As the #1 place people think of for just about anything domestic, I don't know how they could be mismanaged so badly that the whole chain goes under?! On the flip side, they r…

> 19 Kids and Counting

Reality TV aside, U.S family size hit an all-time low (3.13) in 2003, and has stayed there since.

And the birth rate has failed to attain replacement since the early 70s.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#172

Post by 98codes »

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.

If it's unused generally but also kept up, sure. That's generally not the case for empty houses.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#173

Post by vkou »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #150
NoboruWataya wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yahoo, essentially, when it disgorged its stake in AliBaba to Yahoo's shareholders.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#174

Post by vkou »

mrguyorama wrote: post #155
exsf0859 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's covered the decline of BBBY many times in his newsletter, explaining the financial details and shaking his head each time. His Monday April 24th, 2023 newsletter, titled "Bed Bath Moves Beyond", covers the situation once again. It ends: "Bed Bath saw that its retail shareholders wanted to throw their money away, and that its sophisticated lenders wanted to get their money back, and realized that there was a trad…

>The lawsuits are gonna be great. Why can you be sued because idiots convinced themselves you were a good buy while you were showing everyone your terrible finances?

Because you aren't allowed to sell stock in advance of your bankruptcy filing.

BBBY did this in a roundabout way, by signing a deal with HBC, where HBC sells BBBY stock in exchange for cash...

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#175

Post by no_wizard »

cjohnson318 wrote: post #65
zackmorris wrote: post #38

I have no great love for BBB, but they saved me countless times when I was looking for last-minute gift ideas. The store closest to me was always packed, and prices were just enough higher than other stores that I figured they were making bank. As the #1 place people think of for just about anything domestic, I don't know how they could be mismanaged so badly that the whole chain goes under?! On the flip side, they r…

> 19 Kids and Counting I think the birthrate in the US has been falling consistently for years and years. After people have one kid, they realize how expensive childcare is, and usually don't have more than one more.

It was a TV Show[0]

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_Kids_and_Counting

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#176

Post by DSingularity »

rcme wrote: post #128
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…

Is the market acting like infinite growth is baked in, or is inflation simply out of control? And I’m not talking about CPI over the last three years. Stocks have been insane over the last decade. Real estate has been insane over the last decade. Neither of which is measured by CPI. So yea… the market is pricing things like the Fed will keep printing money to prop up assets it explicitly ignores in its inflation calc…

It certainly feels like money is going to lose its value eventually. Everyone is becoming wealthy by just clicking buy. When people start using that money, what will happen? Markups from exceed demand — inflation.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#177

Post by no_wizard »

linsomniac wrote: post #141
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.

Kohl's doesn't have great coupons unless you have a credit card with them anymore. I used to shop there alot for the sales + coupon at the end of each season, and now its only worth it if you have a credit card with them

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#178

Post by jraby3 »

dragontamer wrote: post #84
BaseballPhysics wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You can be right for the wrong reasons. You can be wrong for the right reasons. You can be right for the right reasons, you can be wrong for the wrong reasons. The problem with being "right for the wrong reasons", is that your logic fails to apply to future situations. The "wrong reasons" in this case, is the obvious ego-tickling / ha ha the other people were wrong that's obviously intrinsic to the gambling / meme st…

A simpler way to say this is you can have a correct bet and a bad outcome and an incorrect bet and a good outcome.

If I were to offer you $1 for heads and $3 for tails and you chose heads and lost, I’d win the bet but it’s still a bad bet.

Re: Bed Bath and Beyond files for bankruptcy

#179

Post by tpmx »

jedberg wrote: post #78
aliljet wrote: post #3

This is surprisingly old news, but still somewhat interesting. I'm curious what led to this being posted today?

Yesterday was the last day to use the coupons. They officially enter bankruptcy today.

Sona (Conan) is going to miss them. Sorry in advance for the niche reference.
Post reply on HN