The writing has been on the wall – and on the floor, on the empty shelves and the employees’ faces – for some time, but it’s now official: Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby are closing down.
They’ve confirmed that they’ve filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. While filing for bankruptcy protection doesn’t always mean that a company is in immediate peril, with Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby it does because they’ve simultaneously confirmed that they’re winding down operations for both chains.
They’re expecting that all of their remaining stores will close by June 30, 2023, but there’s an accelerated timeline for other factors:
- April 26, 2023: Last date coupons will be accepted
- May 8, 2023: Last date gift cards will be accepted
- May 24, 2023: Last date returns and exchanges will be processed for products bought before April 23, 2023
For GC Galore readers, it’s likely that middle point that’ll be most pertinent – Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards will no longer be accepted after May 8. If you’re therefore currently holding any of their gift cards for personal use or reselling, you only have a couple more weeks to redeem and/or resell them.
If you’re wanting to redeem them yourself, that could potentially be tricky seeing as they now have fewer stores after closing many of them in recent years, while the stores that are open have far less stock in them than in their glory days. If you do get lucky with a store that has a somewhat decent amount of stock though, you could make out like a bandit seeing as the liquidation sales will hopefully drop prices much further in addition to using coupons by April 26 and paying with gift cards you bought at a discount or received as a gift from Aunt Maeve 17 Christmases ago.
If you’re looking to resell the cards, it’s hard to know what the next two weeks will hold. At the time of publishing this, Raise has 39 pages of discounted Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards with a maximum of 7% off but many with no discount whatsoever, while CardCash (our affiliate link) has far fewer of their gift cards listed but with a higher discount of 10%-17%. The percentage discount will likely increase as the days tick by as people try to ensure they get at least some value out of the gift cards.
Having said that, there’s a chance that demand for the gift cards might increase which would reduce the percentage discount on offer. With liquidation sales, there’ll be people going into Bed Bath & Beyond to buy up what remaining stock they have, whether that’s die hard Bed Bath & Beyond shoppers eager for one last shot at deals or product resellers looking for cheap items they can buy at a big discount to resell elsewhere at a profit. I can therefore envision a scenario where the discount available on these gift cards actually reduces due to higher demand, but that remains to be seen.
h/t Matt
@Stephen Pepper With your expert opinion, how likely will the May 8 deadline is trustworthy? Should I use up my gift cards ASAP in case they change the date to somewhat earlier or hold on until store closing sales begin and use them.
I think the deadline in and of itself is trustworthy in that I don’t think they’ll change that specific timeline for when gift cards will be accepted. However, the bigger question will be how much stock will be left at your local store(s) if and when the liquidation sales start. It could also be that your local store closes before that; while they’re all expected to close by June 30, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll still be open for as long as that.
I therefore think you’re safe in terms of being able to use gift cards through May 8 – it’s just how easy it’ll be logistically to do that. Provided they continue taking orders on their website though, you should still be able to place orders that way too. However, I’m not sure if in-store discounts will be better than online.
If they follow the Toys-R-Us route, minimum 10% discount on high demand item and up to 40% off on items that don’t sell.
I have both stores close to me and they are well stocked as of last week to anticipate immediate closure. Having kids, Buy Buy Baby will have something to buy.
I wonder how will work a return between May 8 & May 24, as Gift Cards will no longer be accepted after May 8 But returns will still be accepted, So will they issue refunds in cash…?
@dave, from the below, it seems that no returns are allowed for products bought after april 23, 2023, unless I am wrong.