Bed, Bath & Beyond went woke, now going broke, files for Chapter 11

By
Suzanne Downing
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41

In 2021, Bed Bath & Beyond made the decision to go with the company Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) flow, and become a top 10 ESG retail employer by 2030. It made it as far as 2023.

The company focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion goals to reach at least 50% women representation and at least 25% racial and/or ethnic diversity at all levels in the workplace. It focused on its carbon footprint instead of its bottom line. It ignored business threats from Amazon, the online retailer. And performance was a lower priority than equity.

Two years later, the company has spiraled downward and today filed for bankruptcy with the goal of closing all of its stores unless it can find a buyer during Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The end result of Chapter 11 is often Chapter 7 dissolution, and in both cases, suppliers and contractors often get the short straw and are not paid what they are owed. Thus, small mom-and-pop companies will feel the ripple effect of this news, as will thousands of the people who work at the company.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a new tool that the financial investment sector is using to screen investments based on how well company policies perform as social leaders, according to a certain set of criteria.

ESG is controversial because publicly traded companies that adopt it shift their focus from their responsibility to investors. Instead, they align with ever-shifting social concerns — an arena where the goalposts are constantly moving and are ill-defined.

Alaska’s one Bed Bath & Beyond store, located on Dimond Blvd. in Anchorage, will be among the 360 stores that are likely to close, although that may not happen for weeks or months.

“While the Company has commenced a liquidation sale, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. intends to use the Chapter 11 proceedings to conduct a limited sale and marketing process for some or all of its assets. The Company has filed motions with the Court seeking authority to market Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY as part of an auction pursuant to section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code. Alongside these efforts, the Company is also strategically managing inventory to preserve value. In the event of a successful sale, the Company will pivot away from any store closings needed to implement a transaction. The Company believes this dual-path process will best maximize value,” the company wrote in the statement it released today.

41 COMMENTS

      • You have zero point no knowledge of how business works do you? – If you did you would know that most start-ups go under in the first 5 years. Take a look at ALL the start ups PRESIDENT Trump had before he got into the business of saving the American way and you will find that he is WAY at the top of the list for successful start ups……And FYI PTRSIDENT Trump never took a nickle of tax payer money in his 6 companys that failed like your half honkey pal did with Solendra. -The fact is PRESIDENT Trump lost his own money in those bankruptcies. .

        Snowflakes should not be allowed to have access to the internet.

  2. To imply that “being woke” means going broke is foolish. Microsoft? Apple? Berkshire Hathaway? Ford? most successful busineses in the last 40 years were liberal. in fact name 1 ,,even 1 conservative business worth more then 20 billion?…that has prospered…if anything it seems being Conservative means going broke from bigotry lawsuits and being a talent dead end…people do not enjoy working in a handmaid’s tale setting…

      • Have trouble reading, Bobbie?

        Try this:

        The future of Ford centers on a purpose bigger than building vehicles. We are helping to build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.

        A world that is fully electric. A world that is more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable. And in doing so, we are putting people, the planet, and our shared prosperity first.

        At Ford, we are committed to making progress on the issues that matter in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) areas. It is a critical part of our Ford+ plan for growth and value creation as we transform our business for a new era of electric and connected vehicles, setting the pathway for our continued success, for generations to come.

        • Have trouble with history, goofball?

          – Every company of size has a corporate statement implying that founding members of the company may have included Abraham Lincoln and Jesus. Their BS statement normally does not effect company behavior in the slightest.

          – The brightest man in the Ford company history was its founder, Henry. You may recall that Henry published his own periodical entitled “The International Jew”. I’m going to guess by your comments that history is an elusive concept for you so I’ll offer a quick synopsis; Henry was not a fan of our Hebrew friends. He hated them with a passion and he’d sooner wipe his heinder with that feel good woke nonsense you’ve posted than put his name to it.

          The key to making a business profitable has nothing to do with any of the feel good BS that manufacturers, distributors or retailers post on corporate walls. Be that as it may, if they start believing any of their own feel good nonsense you can surely expect to see them in receivership soon.

    • Apparently you do not understand that “woke” and “liberal” are not the same. Most liberals do NOT go along with the leftist “woke” ideology. If the left has their way about it, “a handmaid’s tale” will be the norm. Use the noggin and see what’s really happening. The left wants to tell liberals and conservatives alike what they can say and what they should think. That is pretty much the handmaid’s tale summed up.

    • Handmaid’s tale? Don’t be silly. It isn’t the Conservatives who are telling women they must share bathrooms and locker rooms with intact males. It isn’t the Conservatives who tell women that having and raising children is evil. And where, pray tell, is the bigotry that encompasses putting abortuaries in black neighborhoods and aggressively marketing them to minorities? I think perhaps you cast upon your “enemies” that which you hold dear.

    • Jason, there is a difference between being “liberal” and “woke”. Apple, Microsoft etc all still look at the bottom line and do not piss off a large segment of their customers (Anheuser-Busch anyone).
      When ideology (hiring people for their race or sex instead of talent),
      virtue-signaling (not selling good products because of the political agenda or perceived environmental infraction) and telling your customers, how to live their lives becomes more important than the mission of providing goods and services to all who want it, you should go broke (and many do).
      As for your handmaid’s tale reference, the current transgender, “I am a man and make a much better woman” is the ultimate relegation of women to marginalized “birthing people” without rights or a voice!
      Conoco Phillips $131 billion, Walmart (conservative leaning) $27 Billion

    • That doesn’t mean they have been following the ESG model. Remember, Leftis/Commies are greedy selfish hypocrites. They follow the model that makes money and peddle ESG with the government to crush the competition. Hence the term crony capitalism.

      In fact, none of the companies you mentioned run off the ESG model.

    • You radical leftist extremists are such a hoot, with your perpetual trotting out of your sick and demented “Handmaid’s Tale” fantasy. But you apparently have no problem being a handmaid to totalitarian government.

    • “……..most successful busineses in the last 40 years were liberal. in fact name 1 ,,even 1 conservative business worth more then 20 billion?……….”
      Well, how about Elon Musk and his business ventures? Many considered him a liberal pot smoker until he bought Twitter specifically to balance just one social media platform. Now the Left considers him the spawn of Satan.
      ALL business leaders were conservative when I was young, Jason. The business isn’t liberal or conservative. It’s officers are. And what we’ve seen over the past half century or so is what is known as The Long March Through The Institutions. Yeah, it’s pretty much over now. What comes next is either another Long March back to sanity, or collapse.
      After a lifetime enduring the march to insanity, I have no intent to endure the kicking and screaming in reverse, even if I could live ling enough to see it. I advocate collapse. I’d like to see it all come to a magnificent, catastrophic end.
      Just because.

  4. Does anybody believe that anybody worshipping at the altar of ESG will learn anything from this or any of the other like bankruptcies? Indeed, there is certain to be at least one woke commenter on this site who will pipe up with excuses for this.
    Scriptures call this hardness of heart, there is only one cure, and it is rarely seen.

    • Donald Trump lost his bid to delay writer E. Jean Carroll’s civil rape and defamation trial against him, set for April 25, in a ruling Monday that knocked down the former president’s argument at every turn. If anything, the ruling served as a reminder of how much legal jeopardy Trump is in on several fronts.

  5. Probably more like private equity that Bed Bath & Beyond is no longer on top, the result unwieldy corporate structure and its failure to reckon with the ascendance of online shopping, stock buy back/payout. EGS not necessily a bad thing, but go ahead and make it so.

  6. When they stopped selling mypillow, they lost our business.
    Get woke (start politicizing products, hiring incompetent peopke), go broke.

    • Radical leftists, like all other cultists, will NEVER learn from their manifest failures and their obvious divergence from reality. Only death can cure the dogmatically insane.

  8. Yes, we need to continue voting with our wallets if we don’t vote at the polls. Let’s do both!

  9. ESG = corporate decisions based on feelings. Corporate decisions should be based on sales numbers. ESG is a clear sign of corporate mismanagement.

  10. ‘https://hbr.org/2022/04/yes-investing-in-esg-pays-off Yes, Investing in ESG Pays Off
    by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston
    April 13, 2022 Harvard Business Reveiw

    • You have chosen poor sources to support a poor premise. One of them sells books, the other used to have a voice in business but doesn’t anymore, and neither of them have any experience w/ what they’re purporting to be true.

      You are definitely not a businessman if you believe any of that dreck.

    • Hahahaha you posted something from Harvard trying to prove that “woke” is good for business?!?
      What a clown

  11. Haven’t returned to BBnB since they made the decision to stop selling Mypillow products. Good to see others did the same. My Pillow should move in to that vacated bldg and expand their product line.

  14. Get woke – Go broke. – There is nothing more to it then that. Ask A/B Inbev how it’s working out for them,,,,,and they are not even a American Company.

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