Bed Bath & Beyond shares tank on reports that suppliers have halted product shipments

By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business

Shareholders are pulling the rug out from under Bed Bath & Beyond. The embattled retailer’s stock dropped 11% in early trading Monday on reports that some of the company’s suppliers have stopped shipping products due to late payments for those goods.

The news couldn’t come at a worse time for the housewares chain.

Bed Bath & Beyond is losing money, its sales are tumbling and the company announced in June that CEO Mark Tritton, who joined from Target in 2019 to try to turn things around, was being pushed out as the retailer’s struggles continue.

And just last week, investor Ryan Cohen, Chewy founder and GameStop chairman, dumped almost his entire stake in the company not long after news of his purchase had lifted its share price in a meme-fueled buying frenzy.

Cohen’s RC Ventures said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the firm intended to sell up to 7.78 million shares of Bed Bath & Beyond as well as more than 16,000 call options that gave RC Ventures the right to buy more shares. The sale represents the vast majority of Cohen’s stake in the company.

The steady drumbeat of problems at Bed Bath & Beyond has rattled investors with its stock falling nearly 60% since Ryan’s planned sale was confirmed late last week.

Now, several firms that provide short-term financing and credit insurance to Bed Bath & Beyond’s vendors have reportedly revoked coverage.

Bed Bath & Beyond did not immediately respond to request for comment on this report.

Shoppers, put off by product shortages, lack of new items and unkempt stores, have been turning away from Bed Bath & Beyond in recent years. Add to that a post-Covid slowdown at home retailers across the board and the market is deeply bearish on this veteran chain.

In June, an analyst report raised alarm about just how bad things were getting for the company by suggesting that some of Bed Bath & Beyond stores may have cut air conditioning and other utilities to lower expenses and make up for a slump in sales — an accusation that the company denied.

— CNN’s Paul R. La Monica and Allison Morrow contributed to this story.

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