They decided to bring back the old brands they got rid of. Will this bring the customers back or is it too late?
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Our management paid bookoo bucks to retail analysts that accelerated the rapid decline of this once great company. Who were these people that believed the founders and Bed Bath vets should be admonished to the retail dust bin and new ideas from Walgreens and Whole Foods would guide our mission? Taking our store, district and regional management out of the decision making process should be a case study for MBA courses!
You may have some old time shoppers that come back to buy the odd item with a recognizable brand name, but I don’t even know if BBB is able to market those old shoppers right back as it’s been so long and they may not even have the budget for it anymore outside of sending tons of Emails. The younger generation have just forgotten about this place completely.
Fact is in todays economy nobody is really shopping for anything BBB offers. Then take into consideration how you can get everything BBB does have cheaper elsewhere, what is the incentive to even try and shop here? This company has lost a ton of customers over the last few years all of which really don't want to come back anyway. The state of BBB is so bad with available cash and credit and what is currently owed to lenders and landlords it would take a tidal wave of positive sales to turn it around, chapter 11 is very near.
The kinds of products that BBB offer can be purchased more cheaply on Amazon or Wayfair plus more variety to choose from. BBB is nice if you need the item immediately but the types of things that BBB offer are not that urgent to have right away. Also BBB tend to be in locations where there is a lot of competition. They also close much earlier than Target (which is most likely close by) which sells the same or similar items plus more.
It's hard to go back at this point. How would they get shoppers to give the stores another chance? They couldn't find what they needed for three years and ended up buying elsewhere. Mark took a company that needed help and did the opposite. Maybe he should have actually listened to the customers to find out why they shopped here and try to improve their overall shopping experience.