Bed Bath & Beyond, attempting to relaunch its brick-and-mortar operation, won’t be putting any stores in California, its chairman declared.
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“California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America,” said a statement Wednesday, Aug. 20, from Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis.
“We’re taking a stand because it’s time for common sense,” the statement says, accusing the state of mandating “higher taxes, higher fees, higher wages that many businesses simply cannot sustain, and endless regulations that strangle growth.”
After filing for Chapter 11 protection in 2023, Bed Bath & Beyond closed all its physical locations. A revamped operation, Bed Bath & Beyond Home, opened a store this month in Tennessee and has said it’s planning to open about 80 more stores through next year.
Responding to the no-California announcement, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office said on X: “After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed. We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again as they try to open a 2nd store.”
The plan for new Bed Bath & Beyond stores involves converting existing Kirkland’s Home stores. Kirkland’s has three Bay Area stores, at outlet malls in Gilroy, Livermore and Vacaville.
As CEO of Camping World, Lemonis was at the center of a regulatory issue in California last year: He announced he was defying an order to stop flying a U.S. flag on an oversize and unpermitted flagpole at the chain’s Stockton-area outlet. The county, however, claimed it had never issued such an order, the Stockton Record reported.
