Bed Bath & Beyond's Push to Make Homeownership More Affordable

Summary

Bloomberg Businessweek: Bed Bath & Beyond’s Push to Make Homeownership More Affordable
Episode Date: June 25, 2026
Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec
Guest: Amy Sullivan, President of Bed Bath & Beyond

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Episode Overview

This episode explores Bed Bath & Beyond’s dramatic evolution from a well-known retail mainstay to a diversified homeownership solutions company. Newly appointed president Amy Sullivan discusses the company’s string of strategic acquisitions, its overarching mission to simplify and reduce the cost of homeownership, and how Bed Bath & Beyond is leveraging its trusted brand—iconic blue coupons included—to grow its retail and service integration both online and offline.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Bed Bath & Beyond’s Transformational Strategy

(01:41 – 04:36)

• Amy Sullivan outlines Bed Bath & Beyond’s mission:

  “Our mission really is to make homeownership more simple and affordable to the consumer. That could be anything from our retail brands that are the essentials for your home... to the process of how you buy and sell and transact in your home.” – Amy Sullivan (02:40)

• The company has acquired several service-oriented businesses, including Cabinets To Go, Lumber Liquidators, SFV Services, and, most recently, Fathom Holdings—a tech-driven real estate services platform.
• The strategy has three pillars:
  • Retail essentials and furnishings
  • Home transactions via financial/real estate services
  • Localized home services

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2. The Role of Technology & Fathom Acquisition

(04:36 – 06:30)

• Fathom Holdings adds a technology backbone to the home transaction process (brokerage, mortgage, title).
• Integration aims to position Bed Bath & Beyond at every major point in a homeowner’s journey:

  “If someone’s buying a home, that’s a big indicator to us of what they’re going to do next or what they need right before that transaction... Fathom being really at the center of that home transaction part.” – Amy Sullivan (05:45)

• The company’s broader tech-first vision stems from its Overstock e-commerce roots, seeking to infuse efficiency and data-driven insight into each service offering.

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3. Building an Ecosystem Around Homeownership

(06:30 – 07:10)

• By owning both the real estate service (Fathom) and the renovation/installation businesses, Bed Bath & Beyond offers end-to-end solutions:

  “How awesome would it be if you were walking a new home with your real estate agent and they could solve for you some of those things?... We want for the consumer to be able to arm that customer with the whole menu of options.” – Amy Sullivan (06:30)

• Real estate agents can now be the gateway for full-home solutions for clients buying or selling homes, creating new earning opportunities for agents and embedding the BBB brand deeper in the homeownership process.

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4. Navigating a Challenging Housing Market

(07:10 – 08:45)

• Despite a “trough” in the housing market, the company sees opportunity:

  “If we can build this... at a low point, then the opportunity on the upside is really huge for us... Certainly, there’s price perception and sensitivity still. People are tight.” – Amy Sullivan (07:24)

• Bed Bath & Beyond positions itself as a value player without sacrificing quality, aiming for a wide demographic reach.

• Container Store, a BBB-owned brand, is seeing price rollbacks:

  “The Container Store brand is awesome... but it has a little bit of a price perception issue... We’re rolling back some prices in Container Store as well.” – Amy Sullivan (08:15, 08:25)

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5. Brand Affinity & The Legendary Coupon Hunt

(08:45 – 10:37)

• The “blue coupon” remains an iconic representation of the brand.
• The company is holding a contest for “America’s oldest Bed Bath & Beyond coupon,” with a $100,000 home transformation prize:

  “It’s a pop culture moment sort of in the history of retail. So many people on their own were like, I saved my coupon because the rumor is they never expire. Will you still honor it? So we started honoring them and then just got to this point where let’s have a little fun...” – Amy Sullivan (09:02)

• The contest is leveraged as both a marketing and community engagement tool as BBB products roll out to more Container Store locations.

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6. Retail Strategy: Brick-and-Mortar Rebound

(10:37 – 11:59)

• Addressing the evolution of Bed Bath & Beyond from a “mall staple” to omni-channel retail:

  “Omnichannel is the best of both worlds. And whether you think about the e-commerce part of your business being your store’s billboard, the stores are equally the billboard for your brand... Over the past I would say two years we’ve seen a resurgence of brick and mortar traffic...” – Amy Sullivan (11:14)

• The company is not just repurposing existing stores but also signing new leases, betting on a blend of in-store and online sales—fueled by renewed consumer interest in physical retail, especially from Gen Z.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the “army” of realtors and renovation synergy:

  “How awesome would it be if you were walking a new home with your real estate agent and they could solve for you some of those things... We want to give them other ways to earn as we think about the potential of all the things they could sell when they have that direct customer connection to a potential home buyer.”
  — Amy Sullivan (06:30)

• On brick-and-mortar’s renewed popularity:

  “...You even see this Gen Z behavior sort of returning to a mall culture, which I thought was really cool to sort of read about.”
  — Amy Sullivan (11:14)

• On enduring brand love for the BBB coupon:

  “There were literally people lining up, taking selfies with the coupon. And so it was such an icon of the brand... It’s a pop moment, pop culture moment sort of in the history of retail.”
  — Amy Sullivan (09:02)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:41: Introduction to Amy Sullivan and new BBB strategy
• 02:40: Amy’s outline of company mission
• 03:30–04:36: Three pillars of new business model detailed
• 05:03–05:59: Fathom Holdings acquisition & technology approach
• 06:30: Synergy of real estate services and renovation brands
• 07:10: Challenges and opportunities in current housing market
• 08:45: Container Store price perspective and broader demographic strategy
• 09:02–10:37: Legendary blue coupon contest and brand nostalgia
• 10:37–11:59: Brick-and-mortar retail resurgence discussion

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Episode Tone & Final Thoughts

The conversation is candid, optimistic, and often playful—especially when discussing brand nostalgia and the coupon contest. Amy Sullivan mixes corporate strategy with personal anecdotes, creating an accessible deep-dive into how a legacy retail brand can reinvent itself for a new era of homeownership.

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Summary prepared for listeners seeking a comprehensive, engaging overview of Bed Bath & Beyond’s reinvention and its broader impact on homeownership and retail trends.

Transcript

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[Carol Massar]

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news.

[Tim Stanvak]

You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio. Today. Though, Bed, Bath and Beyond is very different than it was as a mall staple in the 90s. Earlier this month it inquired installed right and SFV services to Detroit based home installation and renovation companies. That was an all stock transaction. A week ago it bought Fathom Holdings, a tech driven real estate services platform, in an all stock deal. When we last spoke to her in early April, she had just been named president. We're talking about Amy Sullivan. She's back with us. She's the president of Bed, Bath and Beyond. She's the former CEO of the retail chain Kirklands, now also being integrated into Bed, Bath and Beyond.

[Carol Massar]

So great to have you back with us, joining us again from Nashville.

[Tech Advertiser]

Hello.

[Carol Massar]

Hello. Congratulations. I'm sure you're getting settled in.

[Amy Sullivan]

Yes.

[Carol Massar]

What do you want Bed Bath and Beyond to be? Because you know, we were on our planning call this morning and you guys are picking up a lot of different companies. What's the plan here?

[Amy Sullivan]

Yeah, I think for us our mission

really is to make homeownership more simple and affordable to the consumer. And that could be anything from our retail brands that are the essentials for your home or furnishing your home to the process of how you buy and sell and transact in your home. And then as you mentioned earlier, the SFV acquisition that we're working on really goes hand in hand with Cabinets to

Go and Lumber Liquidators and how we think about bringing services into the consumer's

home in an affordable way. That's really all tied to a brand that, let's be honest, the big blue coupon is the brand that everyone has loved for so many years and has a lot of affinity and trust for.

[Tim Stanvak]

I imagine you're not done with acquisitions, Amy.

[Amy Sullivan]

We're still building what we want to build for the future.

[The Hartford Representative]

Yeah.

[Tim Stanvak]

So what is that? Well, to Carol's point, what does that ultimately look like and what are the other types of companies that you'd bring into the Bed Bath and Beyond Family?

[Amy Sullivan]

You know, I think when you think about what we've done so far and

the retail businesses you mentioned sort of at the kickoff, the Fathom transaction and the things in that space are really around, you know, the financial services and the buying of selling of homes. And then that last home services piece, the foundation is there. And so as we think about potential other acquisitions or additions to our business, we want to stay really close to the consumer's neighborhood. And so I would think of anything else that comes in the future as fitting into one of those three sort of pillars of our business.

The retail business feels really solid at this point. We feel like we have brands that, that really service all facets of the home. The Fathom deal was a very big one in terms of the beginning of us thinking about how we help customers transact on their homes. But the home services part is the one where you can really get local and you can get closer to the consumer in their neighborhoods. And so I would think of that. Home services, any way we can service the consumer's home, you know, a man in a van, as we call it, that can be sort of the person on call. We would probably continue to round out that part of our business and really localize how people see our company.

[Carol Massar]

So help me understand though, Fathom holdings, as you said, it was a big deal. $53.38 million stock deal, all stock deal, implied equity value of about again, 53.3 million. They are a technology driven real estate services platform. What exactly do they do and how does that fit in and where will it fit into the financial picture? Where on your balance sheet? You know, I'm also curious about where the growth is going to ultimately be here.

[Amy Sullivan]

Sure. I would think of our whole company

and I'm Glad you mentioned sort of the technology foundation, because honestly, that's even when you think back to when beyond and the overstock E Commerce business was sort of the beginning part of the foundation of our company, we've always had this intention of being a very tech driven organization. And so using that technology, we want to be able to not only continue to service the customer in terms of understanding, if you think of the homeownership journey or the life of sort of how a customer thinks about their home,

customers tend to move into a new home or sell or buy a home every 11 years. And so when we think about what that transaction piece brings into our business, it's a marker. So if someone's buying a home, that's

a big indicator to us of what

they're going to do next or what they need right before that transaction. And so all of these things sort of come together with Fathom being really at the center of that home transaction part to begin to give us those benchmarks and milestones around the home.

[Carol Massar]

So, Amy, so so Fathom, which does mortgage, residential brokerage, title insurance, the idea is you're working with a customer or an individual or a family, they buy a home, you're involved in that early process. And then of course they've got to do some renovation because you guys own Container Store, Elf and Closet workers, Lumber liquidators, cabinets to go. So the idea is you need your floors redone, you need this redone, you need closets. So here, let's get you to the next step. That's the idea.

[Amy Sullivan]

It is.

And I would say, you know, part of the appeal of being involved with a large brokerage is that's another army of salespeople out there that how awesome would it be if you were walking a new home with your real estate agent and they could solve for you some of those things. Many of us that buy homes, the first person you call when you need to do something and you're in a new city or a new neighborhood, you call your realtor and say, hey, do you know a guy? Do you know someone that can do this? And so we really want for the consumer to be able to arm that customer with the whole menu of options. And even if you think about a sales team or an agent, we want to give them other ways to earn as we think about the potential of all the things they could sell when they have that direct customer connection to a potential home buyer.

[Tim Stanvak]

Amy that thesis sounds really great in an environment where the housing market is out, absolutely booming, but that's not the environment that we're in right now, and we haven't been in that environment for years. How is your customer doing?

[Amy Sullivan]

Yeah, I would say first of all,

we're kind of intentional about, about putting all of this together in a, in a low point and in a trough of a season because we believe if we can build this and, and we're very much on a path to profitability, if we can do this at a low point, then the opportunity on the upside is really huge for us in terms of the consumer and how he or she is interacting with us. I would say certainly there's, you know, price perception and there is sensitivity still. I mean, and people are tight. It's the summertime, people want to travel, and so the consumer is feeling a lot of pressure. But when you think about the brands on the retail side in particular that we're putting together, Bed Bath and Beyond really serviced a wide variety of demographic and socio economic sort of breadth of customers out there. And we really think that halo effect of that brand being accessible to everyone

is how we want to sort of revive how people think about Container Store

and how people think about these other brands. The Container Store brand is awesome. We love it, but it has a little bit of a price perception issue. And so we've recently announced to that customer that, you know, Bed Bath and Beyond is here.

And we've gone and fought really hard to get better cost on our products. And so we're rolling back some prices in Container Store as well. And so we want to be that sort of value player that does not sacrifice quality, that, that can service, you know, all of middle America so that we really deliver a home product to him or her in a very affordable

[Carol Massar]

way, I have to say. We used to have a Container Store just walking outside our. And I went there at least probably once a week. And I miss it a lot. Tell us about this sweepstakes that you guys. The legendary coupon hunt and sweepstakes to find America's oldest coupon.

[Amy Sullivan]

Yeah, I think last time I talked to you guys, I shared a little bit about those first few stores that we opened. And the thing that stood out to me the most, even the small format sort of pilot stores that we did in the Nashville market, was people were already coming in with them on their own. And people, when we handed out a brand new version of it that looks just like the coupon we all kept in our junk drawer and our glove compartment, there were literally people lining up, taking selfies with the coupon. And so it was such an icon of the brand that we really just felt like people. It's a pop moment, pop culture moment sort of in the history of retail. And so, so many people on their own were like, I saved my coupon because the rumor is they never expire. Will you still honor it? So we started honoring them and then just got to this point where let's have a little fun with this and let's put a contest out there. Now that we're rolling out Bed Bath product to all the container stores and we have a physical footprint more broadly across the country, we've got a place for customers to sort of come in and interact. And it's been really fun.

[Carol Massar]

I grew up with coupons, big family. That's what we did. But I mean, I would hold on to coupons. My husband would drive me. He's like, what do you know? Now I'm like, really upset because I know I toss up.

[Tim Stanvak]

No, you definitely didn't. No, you didn't throw them away.

[Carol Massar]

I know they're not at home because when. When the Bed, Bath and Beyond that was like a minute away from my home closed. Yeah, I kind of moved on. Can I just say, the oldest surviving Bed, Bath and Beyond coupon America is going to give customers a chance to win $100,000 home transformation.

[Tim Stanvak]

That's what I'm saying. Check under the floorboards.

[Carol Massar]

Are you listening to the floorboards? Check under the.

[Amy Sullivan]

Tell your husband you were right.

[Carol Massar]

Well, Amy, I do often.

[Tim Stanvak]

Well, we spoke about this last time, but I'm curious how it's evolved in the last few months and just the way you are thinking about your retail strategy. Because as I mentioned that the. And when I say retail. Bricks and mortar. Retail strategy.

[Amy Sullivan]

Because when.

[Tim Stanvak]

When, you know, when we think about this as a mall staple of the 90s, this was one of the anchor tenants. And that's no longer. It was the way that retail works.

[Carol Massar]

But look at Wayfair that created started as an online and now they're doing these mega stores.

[Tim Stanvak]

But they're few and far between still. Right.

[Carol Massar]

But they're opening several this year. Several. They're like on an expansion thing.

[Amy Sullivan]

But.

[Carol Massar]

Forgive me. Tim brings up a good point.

[Amy Sullivan]

Yeah, I would. I would say, I would think about it both the Wayfarer version of this and I think they're definitely doing the right thing for their brand. Omnichannel is the best of both worlds. And whether you think about the E Commerce part of your business being your stores billboard. The stores are equally the billboard for your brand. And so the more times you can get that in front of the customer, obviously the better. But honestly, over the past I would say two years we've seen a resurgence of brick and mortar traffic improving again, I think as people want to be less reliant on technology at times or through their phones. I would say at times you see this return to shopping, you even see this Gen Z behavior sort of returning to a mall culture, which I thought was really cool to sort of read about. But we're definitely moving forward aggressively with

a brick and mortar strategy, both with our existing fleet of stores that will continue convert to a combination of our brands, but we're also signing new leases right now and so we believe both channels of the business are part of how we grow.

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