Bed Bath & Beyond made a big splash in New York with the July 22 grand opening of its flagship store in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, introducing shoppers to the company’s bright new look featuring low fixtures, long sightlines, colorful lifestyle signage and departments focusing on every area of a home.
In doing so, Bed Bath & Beyond provided a look at how it is integrating the assortment it has developed, mixing private label and national brands and, at the same time, value and aspirational products, all in a format that’s easy and attractive to shop.
In opening the store, CEO Mark Tritton pointed out that the Chelsea location provides a bigger example of the 450 stores Bed Bath & Beyond is remodeling in an initial initiative to transform the chain’s positioning to the shopper.
“But they will be nothing of the size, scale and beauty of Chelsea,” Tritton said.
The 92,000 square-foot flagship, located at 620 Sixth Avenue, operates on two levels. The upper level includes store pickup right in front, with curbside also available, and the checkouts and kitchen department adjacent. Other top-floor departments are home care, home electronics, organization, health and beauty, home care, dining, seasonal and home design. Health and beauty includes consumables ranging from skincare to vitamins and is broken down into three sub-departments: wellness, beauty and body & bath. As such, it covers the ground Bed Bath & Beyond previously did in its Harmon sections.
Home care covers two parts of the sales floor, one including items such as trash cans and kitchen accessories, the other featuring vacuums — traditional and robotic — and cleaning solutions. Home design incorporates decor items such as mirrors, lighting, candles and a bit of furniture. Home electrics offers heating and cooling, humidifiers and smart home, where Bed Bath and Beyond spotlights one of the partnerships that it has developed with outside brands. In smart home, that means a Google Nest presentation.
The seasonal presentation is back up by large-scale lifestyle signage at this point displaying the slogan “college happier.” The upper level also features a SodaStream Bubble Bar and Café 3B, serving La Colombe coffee.
The lower level provides shoppers with the Sleep Shop, including bedding and mattresses, and featuring the store’s Casper shop. The bed department offers textiles, towels, hardware and shower curtains, and window including hardware, panels, blinds and shades. As had been the case in previous store formats, Bed Bath & Beyond offers a selection of travel products in Chelsea including TSA-approved travel sizes, luggage and accessories but in an open presentation rather than incorporated into the now non-existent bays, which allows shoppers to take it all in with a glance.
Cindy Davis, chief brand officer at Bed Bath & Beyond and president of the company’s Decorist operation, told HomePage News that a critical element of the department merchandising is the integration of national and private labels, owned brands in the company’s rendering, as in, for example, the kitchen department.
“Look and see how we’re presenting owned brands,” she said. “Our Table is in orange. Simply Essential is our opening price point brand. We didn’t have an opening price point brand before. Look and see, on the back wall, how we blended KitchenAid, Our Table, Le Creuset, Breville. You’re going to see that blend.”
She pointed out that the blend provides an opportunity to give shoppers a greater range of price/value choices than it ever has. In that way, Bed Bath & Beyond becomes a destination for a broad range of consumers as they fulfill their needs now and, as those needs evolve, in the future.
“We want to have affordable prices for everyone’s budget,” Davis said.
John Hartmann, Bed Bath & Beyond evp and COO, and president of buybuy BABY, noted that the store not only has pick up but also has scanning self-checkout and QR codes provided throughout as a link for additional online choices, facilitating the use of the whole Bed Bath & Beyond product and services offering.
“We’re really transitioned into an omni-always retailer,” he said. “Just go to the app, you can scan any product, you can put it in your basket, you can check out with the app, so we’ve really gone fully digital.”
Hartmann made the point that with all the new, attractive features, the Chelsea flagship, and the remodeled stores as well, have adopted an approach to basic merchandising that offers consumers a welcoming place to purchase for their homes.
“The store is so shoppable now,” he said. “It was dense, claustrophobic. Now, it’s wide open.”
