Bed Bath & Beyond to open redesigned NYC flagship

Dive Brief:

As part of its three-year transformation plan announced last October, Bed Bath & Beyond on Thursday will open its newly redesigned flagship store in New York's Chelsea neighborhood.
The 92,000-square-foot space features an improved layout and open sightlines and in-store shopping tools through the retailer's app, according to a company press release. Bed Bath & Beyond's owned brands — six of which have launched this year — will also be prominently displayed in the flagship, the company said.
The space will include in-store experiences, including an interactive vacuum display, a coffee bar serving La Colombe, a SodaStream "Bubble Bar" with an on-sight mixologist and a previously announced Casper shop-in-shop.

Dive Insight:

When Bed Bath & Beyond rolled out its three-year turnaround plan last year, store remodels were a key pillar.

For years, analysts have criticized how the retailer's cluttered stores have negatively impacted the consumer shopping experience, which Bed Bath & Beyond itself acknowledged.

"Gone are a dizzying disarray of merchandise stacked high that provided shoppers with 'shopping paralysis', and replaced with lower sightlines, wider aisles and neatly arranged products that inspire customers with a residential experience to help them shop," the company said Wednesday.

As part of its turnaround plan, Bed Bath & Beyond is spending $250 million to remodel 450 of its stores over the next three years to modernize the in-store shopping experience and further bolster its goals of transforming itself into a digital-first, "omni-always" retailer, according to CEO Mark Tritton.

To that end, the retailer is enhancing the store experience through its mobile app, which features an "in-store shopping mode" that consumers can enable to better navigate the space, view product information and create registries. The retailer on Wednesday also introduced a "scan and buy" feature, allowing customers to skip the traditional checkout line to complete a purchase.

The flagship includes a number of the store fulfillment options Bed Bath & Beyond has been touting the past year, like buy online, pick up in store, curbside pickup and same-day delivery.

"Our Chelsea flagship has served local community for decades," Tritton said in a statement. "We're proud to invest here and add to New York City's 'return to normal' to serve residents and visitors alike."