Locator: 48905CA.
The lede of this op-ed:
Bed Bath & Beyond is reemerging from bankruptcy with new storefronts and an updated business model, but Californians won’t see the retailer return to their local shopping centers.
More:
Bed Bath & Beyond, once a mainstay of American malls, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and shuttered all stores, including nine in the Bay Area. Later that year, Overstock.com purchased the brand’s assets and rebranded as Beyond Inc. This month, the first revamped Bed Bath & Beyond Home store opened in Nashville, part of a plan to convert roughly 75 former Kirkland’s locations nationwide by 2026.
But then this:
A press release today from Beyond Inc. explains why the expansion will have a particular geographic limit. The release includes the following statement from Bed Bath & Beyond Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis, who has become a familiar presence on Fox Business Network after earlier star turns on CNBC and ABC:
We will not open or operate retail stores in California. This decision isn’t about politics — it’s about reality.
California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America.
It’s a system that makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open, and harder to deliver value to customers. The result?
Higher taxes, higher fees, higher wages that many businesses simply cannot sustain, and endless regulations that strangle growth.
Even when the state announces a budget surplus, it’s built on the backs of ordinary citizens who are paying too much and businesses who are squeezed until they break… Californians will continue to get the products they love through BedBathandBeyond.com — but without the inflated costs created by an unsustainable model.
Governor Newsom responded on x, noting that Bed, Bath and Beyond had re-opened its first store and wishing the chain good luck in opening a second store.
That's the governor of California.
Much more at the link.
So far, 128 comments at the article. Most support Newsom. Cognitive dissonance. I'm sure the same enjoy high gasoline prices. I have no dog in either fight.
Speaking of which, I wonder how the In 'N Out family move to Nashville, TN, is going?
Meanwhile, we now have a proverbial circular firing squad. Posted by The Los Angeles Times just two hours ago, it's now being reported that the Democrats in the California House are investigating California's high-speed rail project, investigating whether the California high-speed rail authority knowingly misrepresented ridership projections.
This tells me one thing: the California bullet train will be the mid-term political issue with regard to California state spending.
