Business Insider/Jessica Tyler
We visited a Bed Bath & Beyond in Downtown Manhattan.
- Bed Bath & Beyond is struggling to keep up with its competition.
- Its stock took a hit after the company reported disappointing guidance for 2018 last week, and it was downgraded by the credit-ratings agency Standard & Poor on Wednesday.
- We visited a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan and found that while the amount of merchandise for sale was overwhelming, it was very clean and well organized overall. It also offered a lenient return policy.
Bed Bath & Beyond is struggling to keep up with its competition.
Its stock plunged more than 18% after the company reported disappointing 2018 guidance last Thursday, and on Wednesday, the credit-ratings agency Standard & Poor downgraded its bonds to the lowest level still considered investment grade, according to CNN Money.
The problem, according to retail experts, could be with Bed Bath & Beyond's stores.
"Too many of Bed Bath & Beyond's stores - especially older ones - are a mess," Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, wrote in an email to CNBC. He continued by saying the stores' products are "crammed into a space that is largely devoid of inspiration."
Whether or not the stores are in bad shape, Bed Bath & Beyond offers its customers some valuable perks. It has a lenient return policy that allows customers to return almost anything for a refund. Even without a proof of purchase, customers can be refunded 80% of the original price they said. In addition, most locations allow customers to use multiple coupons at once, use expired coupons, and use coupons on already-discounted items when making purchases.
To better compete with Amazon on online orders, the store now offers free shipping on orders over $29. Some analysts have argued that while the offer is attractive, it hurts the company's profit margins in that customers might turn elsewhere to make purchases of under $29. The company also recently launched a membership program, called Beyond+, that costs $29 annually and gives customers 20% off every purchase, plus free shipping.
We recently visited a Bed Bath & Beyond location in Downtown Manhattan. Here's what we found: