Bed Bath & Beyond to close 87 more stores

Embattled home goods retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond is closing 87 stores as its financial travails continue.

It will also close its entire chain of Harmon drugstores as well as five Buybuy Baby stores, the company said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch. 

Bed Bath & Beyond said it is working with its advisors “to consider multiple paths” to allow it to run the business as efficiently as possible. 

In August, the company announced it would close 150 locations that were underperforming across the U.S. in a bid to cut costs amid declining sales.

GlobalData analyst Neil Saunders last year noted in a research report that the chain’s stores are “rather messy and lack basic merchandising discipline.”

Bankruptcy likely

Bed Bath & Beyond is expected to file for bankruptcy soon as it struggles to raise capital to reorganize its business.  Earlier this month, Bed Bath & Beyond defaulted on its loans and said it couldn’t afford to repay its debt.

The home goods chain disclosed the default in a securities filing and indicated that it was considering restructuring its debt in bankruptcy court.

The company had already warned there was “substantial doubt” it could stay in business. 

The former retail powerhouse has struggled for three key reasons, according to experts. 

For one, it was slow to embrace the internet and e-commerce. Former CEO Mark Tritton also spent $625 million buying back company shares, which ultimately led vendors to scale back their business with the retailer. In a third misstep, the retailer tried selling a variety of private-label products but they were low quality and didn’t attract buyers.