Two years after its last stores closed, Bed Bath & Beyond is betting that nostalgia can fill the aisles. The retailer is entering the next phase of its comeback with the Saturday opening of its first co-branded location inside The Container Store in Texas.
The new format blends Bed Bath & Beyond products with The Container Store’s organization business under one roof. It is not a test. It is the blueprint.
The company plans to bring the co-branded concept to all 98 remaining Container Store locations and roughly 100 smaller-format stores, Bed Bath & Beyond president Amy Sullivan told Axios.
“We don’t want people to think of this as a shop-in-shop,” Sullivan said. “This is a forever-together, co-branded” concept.
Why This Is Different
The original Bed Bath & Beyond collapsed under the weight of its sprawling big-box stores. The company pushed too far into private-label products and lost sight of the national brands that customers actually wanted. The last stores closed in 2023.
The new version is smaller. It is a learner. And it is leaning heavily into nostalgia.
“When we opened those first few small-format stores in Nashville, customers waited in line for an hour,” Sullivan said. “There were people taking selfies with the coupon.”
That coupon — the iconic blue 20% off — was a cultural touchstone. Bed Bath & Beyond is betting that the emotional connection to the brand survived the bankruptcy.
The co-branded stores mix kitchen gadgets with pantry organization and bedding with closet storage. They are bringing back national brands like KitchenAid, SharkNinja, and Cuisinart — a direct acknowledgment that the previous strategy of overloading private labels was a mistake.
Sullivan admitted as much. “Bed Bath & Beyond lost credibility when it pushed too far into private-label products instead of trusted national brands,” she told Axios.
The Road Back
The company tested smaller-format Bed Bath & Beyond stores inside Kirkland’s locations before expanding to The Container Store. Those tests worked. Customers showed up. They waited in lines. They took selfies with the coupon.
Now the company is scaling up. Bed Bath & Beyond products are expected to expand into all Container Store locations by fall, with back-to-college assortments launching this summer.
The question is whether nostalgia is enough to sustain a long-term turnaround. The first wave of customers will come because they remember the brand. The second wave will come because the products are good and the prices are competitive. The third wave will decide whether Bed Bath & Beyond truly survives or is just living on borrowed time.
The Bottom Line
Bed Bath & Beyond is opening its first co-branded location inside The Container Store in Fort Worth, Texas, on Saturday. The company plans to expand the format to all 98 Container Store locations and roughly 100 smaller-format stores. The stores mix kitchen, bedding, and organization products, bringing back national brands like KitchenAid, SharkNinja, and Cuisinart.
The original Bed Bath & Beyond collapsed in 2023 after pushing too hard into private-label products. The new version is smaller, co-branded, and leaning into customer nostalgia. Early tests in Nashville drew hour-long lines and customers taking selfies with the iconic blue coupon.
