Bed Bath & Beyond to Expand Curbside Pickup to 90% of Stores
Bed Bath & Beyond plans to expand its contactless curbside pickup services to around 90% of its fleet and reopen around half of stores by mid-June.
The expansion will cover 1,350 stores in total, adding a further 600 additional locations. In addition, the home goods retailer announced plans to re-open approximately 600 additional stores to the public, including around 500 Bed Bath & Beyond stores across North America, as well as around 50 Christmas Tree Shop stores and around 50 Cost Plus World Market stores in the US. In addition to buybuy BABY and Harmon Face Values stores, which remain open, this means around 50% of the retailer’s total store fleet is expected to be open by June 13.
It also plans to bring back approximately 11,000 associates back from furlough as stores re-open to the public and services are expanded across North America.
"We continue to respond to the COVID-19 situation with measured, purposeful steps to help keep our people safe and our customers served,” said Mark Tritton, president & CEO. “We recently launched our Store Safety Plan and are guided by our medical team and national, state and local guidance to help ensure customers can shop with us confidently.’
"We're seeing strong online engagement from our loyal customers through this period,” Tritton continued. “Over recent weeks in the US, traffic to our Bed Bath & Beyond website and mobile app is up approximately 30% and digital sales have doubled. Customers are also responding well to the launch of BOPIS and contactless curbside pickup, with these services accounting for a meaningful percentage of our Bed Bath & Beyond US digital sales in the last week, and we anticipate continued growth as we expand the service to more stores in the coming weeks.”
Bed Bath & Beyond also announced a $10 million plan to donate essential items to those affected by COVID-19 this week. The 'Bringing Home Everywhere' program will deliver products that provide home comfort and essential support to communities and those on the frontline of the pandemic across the US and Canada.
"Our homes have become even more central to our lives during this crisis, yet we know that for many people that sense of home has been affected by the health and economic impacts of COVID-19,” said Tritton. “We're doing what we can to bring home everywhere, creating comfort and providing essential support to communities suffering in the face of this pandemic. So, whether it's fresh sheets, pillows and towels for people in the hospital or nursing care, food and home items for those in need, or toys or essential infant supplies for children, we're doing what we can to make it easy to feel at home for those most in need at this time."
While the Company continues its measured approach to re-opening stores, it expects around half of its stores across its retail banners to remain closed to the public through June 13, 2020. In conjunction with the decision to further extend temporary store closures, Bed Bath & Beyond will also extend the furlough of the majority of store associates and a portion of corporate associates until at least June 13, 2020.