Bed Bath & Beyond is back—with a slightly different name

The retailer, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and shut down all of its stores, is now celebrating its return to the brick-and-mortar world with a tweak to the name. Bed Bath & Beyond Home opened its doors in Nashville, Tenn. last Friday.

That store will serve as a test location, according to the owner of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand. If it’s successful, another four locations could be open before the end of the year.

“We’re proud to reintroduce one of retail’s most iconic names with the launch of Bed Bath & Beyond Home,” said Amy Sullivan, CEO of The Brand House Collective, which owns the brand now. “This isn’t just a store, it’s a fresh start for a brand that means something special to so many families. With Bed Bath & Beyond Home we’re delivering on our mission to offer great brands, for any budget, in every room.  It’s a powerful addition to our portfolio and a meaningful step forward in our transformation.”

While all 360 of the store’s original locations closed with the bankruptcy filing, Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t stay dead for long. Overstock (which is part of The Brand House Collective) bought the brand’s intellectual property from the bankruptcy courts and rebranded its flagship site as Bed Bath & Beyond (and revived the company’s website).

Bed Bath & Beyond was, for a while, a favorite of meme stock traders. In July 2022, shares soared 365% after a filing revealed activist investor Ryan Cohen’s RC Ventures fund was maintaining its holding in the company, with a prediction shares would hit $80 per share. Cohen, founder of Chewy and chairman of other meme stock favorite GameStop, suddenly reversed course in August, though, dumping his entire holdings, more than 9.4 million shares. That caused the stock to plunge—and led to calls for an SEC investigation into Cohen, which never materialized.

The company’s real problems, though, came during the pandemic. Bed Bath & Beyond missed out on the wave of shoppers its competitors saw during those times as it was in the midst of a failed overhaul, where it planned to rely more on private brands than products like KitchenAid. Consumers bypassed its offerings, opting for convenience and familiar names.