Entrepreneur launches new home retailer in former Bed Bath & Beyond stores

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Serial entrepreneur Doug Putman, the man who revived dying brands like Toys “R” Us Canada Ltd., is launching a “better” version of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. by taking over a third of the bankrupt retailers’ Canadian brick-and-mortar locations to fill a gap in the market that he says has long-term potential.

“We want to take what was good about Bed Bath but we want to make it even better,” Putman said. “They were great for a time and lost their way.”

Putman’s Canadian home wares and appliances company will be called rooms + spaces (lack of capitals intended) and will launch initially with 21 locations in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and one in Newfoundland by July. The physical stores will be housed in closed Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy Baby stores, a brand for infant clothing and supplies that the New Jersey-based company also owned and operated north of the border.

Rooms + spaces will feature much of the same merchandise as the old Bed Bath & Beyond stores, such as kitchen gadgets and linens, but Putman said he and his team are focusing on including more brand names and ensuring there’s enough product in stock. That’s what will be the key of enduring success, even despite the current weakening macroeconomic environment and less consumer spending, he said.

In order to do that, his company will offer the same type of products across a range of price points to attract a variety of shoppers. If there’s a set of towels that range from $10 to $60, the goal is to ensure the customer thinks the quality for whichever towel they end up purchasing is worth it, he gave as an example.

“I don’t think we anticipate this being a year where everyone’s spending freely,” he said. “It’s on us to negotiate hard with our partners to make sure that the value for money is there.”

His team has already secured deals with suppliers who used to sell merchandise to Bed Bath & Beyond and Putman said he hired Greg Dyer, the former general manager of the bankrupt retailer’s Canada division, to help steer operations.

The new home goods store will focus its product assortment on brand names recognizable to Canadians, such as Cuisinart and Miele.

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Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in the United States on April 23 after its Canadian operations became insolvent in February. The home goods retailer was successful for several decades, but the rise of e-commerce giants like Amazon.com Inc. proved too formidable. By 2017, Bed Bath & Beyond’s sales began dropping. That year, annual sales were US$12.3 billion and in 2022, revenue came in at US5.7 billion.

In Canada, the company liquidated all its 54 brick and mortar locations, plus all of its 11 locations of Buybuy Baby, a brand focused on infant clothing and supplies.

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. said this week that it would be acquiring 10 former Bed Bath & Beyond leases to expand its Mark’s and Pro Hockey Life banners.

Six of the leases will be for relocations of clothing in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, while the other four will be new Pro Hockey Life stores in Ontario.

Rooms + spaces locations to open in July

British Columbia

• Kelowna: Orchard Plaza, 1540 Keehn Road
• Langley: Langley City Square, 19860 Langley Bypass
• Vancouver: 1740 West Broadway
• Victoria: Mayfair, 775 Finlayson Street

Alberta

• Calgary: Brentwood Village, 3630 Brentwood Road
• Calgary: Chinook Station, 306 Glenmore Trail SW
• Edmonton: South Edmonton Common, 2021-98 Street NW
• Edmonton: West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 Street

Saskatchewan

• Regina: Grasslands, 4855 Gordon Road
• Saskatoon: Preston West, 1709 Preston Avenue North

Ontario

• Belleville: Bell Front Shopping Centre, 366 North Front Street
• Cambridge: Smartcentres Cambridge, 70 Pinebush Road
• East Gwillimbury: Green Lane Centre, 1-18126 Yonge Street
• Kitchener: The Boardwalk, 225 The Boardwalk
• London: Westwood Centre, 3325 Wonderland Road
• Richmond Hill: Bayview Ridge Shopping Centre, 225 High Tech Road
• Stittsville: 5487 Hazeldean Road
• Stoney Creek: Heritage Greene, 1783 Stone Church Road East
• Whitby: Thickson Ridge Power Centre, 1650 Victoria Street East
• Woodbridge: RioCan Colossus Centre, 67 Colossus Drive

Newfoundland

• St. John’s: The Village Shopping Centre, 430 Topsail Road

Additional reporting by Canadian Press

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