Bed Bath & Beyond Led National Chain Closures In CA In 2023

CALIFORNIA — Several national discount, department store and specialty chains closed locations in the Golden State in 2023 as they grappled with inflationary pressures, filed for bankruptcy or adjusted their business models to reflect changes in consumer shopping habits.

Others, including pharmacy giants CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid, closed stores as demand for COVID-19-related services declined. And Target blamed the closure of a handful of metropolitan stores on a spike in organized retail crime.

Here’s a look at how some of the announcements affected California:

Bed Bath & Beyond came back from the dead in digital form after Overstock.com acquired $21.5 million in intellectual property assets from the beleaguered chain. Still, the chain planned to shutter 896 stores as part of its bankruptcy filing, according to NBC News. The closures included 360 flagship stores, 120 Buy Buy Baby stores, and 416 Bed Bath & Beyond, and Harmon and stores that were set to close.

That figure included more than 40 planned closures in the Golden State, impacting communities across Southern and Northern California.

In August, the new owners of Buy Buy Baby, announced plans to reopen 11 stores in the Northeast, and the new owner of the health and beauty chain Harmon said it would reopen at least five stores, CNBC reported.

Foot Locker said it would shutter 545 stores, including 125 of its Champs Sports locations by 2026, as part of a “reset” that includes opening about 300 “new concept” stores, according to Business Insider. Most of the closures were slated for underperforming stores operating inside malls.

In February, Dallas-based discount home goods retailer Tuesday Morning announced plans to shutter half its stores amid bankruptcy, but then said in April it would close all of its stores. In all, 487 stores were affected. More than 30 stores in California were shut down from San Diego to the Bay Area.

Banana Republic and its parent company, Gap, said about 350 stores would close in 2023 and that it would end the year with about 866 stores. The expansive slate of closures in the Golden State included major locations inside San Francisco Centre and Embarcadero Center, with plans to open a new flagship location in San Francisco's Union Square in October.

Party City filed for bankruptcy in January, announced in February it would shutter 22 store closures, and added another nine to the list in April. That list included four California locations in Downey, Lodi, Marina and Palmdale.

Best Buy said it would close between 20 and 30 big box stores in 2023, while opening eight smaller concept and 10 outlet stores. The company did not say what specific stores would close, but typically closes between 15 and 20 a year, Business Insider reported.

Target blamed organized retail crime in a September announcement of nine store closures in the New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon, areas. Previously, Target closed four stores with declining foot traffic — one each in Philadelphia and its hometown of Minneapolis and two in Washington, D.C.

As The Seattle Times notes, earlier in the year Target cited lagging performance in closing at least four of its urban "small format" stores, rather than crime.

In reevaluating its physical store strategy, Amazon said in March it would shutter nine of its Go locations — two in New York, three in Seattle, and four in San Francisco, according to Business Insider.

Seven Big Lots stores — three stores in California and four in Colorado — were scheduled for closure in 2023 as the discount chain shifts its emphasis to small towns from urban areas, Business Insider reported.

Four Macy’s stores closed in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Maryland as part of the company’s three-year plan to close 125 stores.

More CVS stores closed as the company adjusts its business plan to reflect changing populations and buying patterns. CVS is in the second year of the three-year plan to close 900 stores by the end of 2024. The round latest closures include an announcement this month to shutter yet another San Francisco location, leaving the city with a dozen CVS locations, down from 21 just two years ago.

Struggling under slumping sales and heavy debt from opioid-related litigation, the Rite Aid drugstore chain said in October it was accelerating the closure of some underperforming drugstores while it restructures under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In all, 154 locations were affected. A month later, Rite Aid said it was closing 31 more stores. In all, 185 locations were affected.

In California, the list of closures included seven stores around Livermore, Sacramento, Capitola, Oakhurst, Truckee and South Lake Tahoe.

Walgreens plans to close 150 stores by the end of August 2024, the Deerfield, Illinois-based drugstore chain said in June, citing slowing demand for COVID-19-related services among other factors. Walgreens did not say which among its 9,000 stores nationwide would close.