Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. announced on Friday its plans to reopen its stores and expand on the roll-out of more fulfillment centers as part of its reopening approach across North America.
The Union-based retailer said it plans to take these steps by June 13:
- Reopen 600 additional stores, including 500 Bed Bath & Beyond stores as well as 50 Christmas Tree Shop’s and 50 Cost Plus World Market’s;
- Expand contactless curbside pickup at approximately 1,350 stores;
- Bring about 11,000 workers back from furlough.
“We continue to respond to the COVID-19 situation with measured, purposeful steps to help keep our people safe and our customers served. 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,” Mark Tritton, President & CEO, said. “Customers across North America are already taking advantage of the ease and convenience of Buy-Online-Pick-Up-at Store and contactless curbside pickup, and we’re delighted to roll-out these services to over 1,000 store locations, as well as welcoming customers back into hundreds of our stores again as we start to re-open across the US and Canada.
The company also announced a $10 million plan to donate essential items to those hurt by COVID-19 this week.
“We’re seeing strong online engagement from our loyal customers through this period. Over recent weeks in the U.S., 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 U.S. 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 said it expects around half of its stores across its retail banners to remain closed through June 13.
