Business News

Bed Bath & Beyond collapses

News: The home goods giant Bed Bath & Beyond, noted for its very bright lighting and sky-high merchandise displays, has finally given up and filed for bankruptcy.

• The choice was made following months of frantic attempts by the business management to rescue the furniture, including closing down operations in Canada in February.

Causes behind it: Be prepared to find a case study on Bed Bath & Beyond's slide in an MBA school one day; most analysts attribute the company's demise to avoidable management errors.

• Like several of their competitors, management could have invested in its technology and e-commerce skills, but instead chose to spend billions on share buybacks and a run of expensive acquisitions that eventually failed.

• They sought to replace name-brand items with higher profit, private-label equivalents when sales dropped, but this tactic only served to annoy suppliers whose products were no longer available on shelves and alienate customers who didn't trust the new brands.

A contributing factor was the fierce competition from e-commerce behemoths like Amazon, whose founders acknowledge that they "missed the boat on the internet.”

Why it matter: In less than four years, Bed Bath & Beyond went from being a publicly traded corporation with three decades of consistent success to bankruptcy. One of the forerunners of the large box store concept, which currently predominates in the US and Canada, has seen a dramatic and quick decline.

City News

Runway for Kookum's Got Talent.

News: Ivan Flett Memorial Dancers, who dazzled judges on Canada's Got Talent, were designed by Dawn Harris-Flett. When her grandkids dance, Winnipeg designer Dawn Harris-Flett finds inspiration for her designs. Last week, some of her designs were displayed on the runway at a city event.

She is the kookum, or grandmother, of the Ivan Flett Memorial Dancers, a Winnipeg dance troupe that stunned the nation with their Métis jigging/hip-hop audition on Canada's Got Talent last year. She also creates their eye-catching dance costumes.

Events in the city

• Mayonnaise, Nobita | April 29 | Exchange Event Centre Winnipeg | 6:00 PM Doors | All Ages | $99.73

• RESCHEDULED: Chris de Burgh | April 29 | Saturday | 7:30 – 10:30 pm GMT-5 | Legend of Robin Hood

Quick Facts

• PSAC has threatened to extend its strike to all of the nation's ports.

• Vancouver's Port is preparing to construct a $3.5 billion container facility.

• The Canadian Embassy in Sudan is evacuated by Ottawa, but thousands of citizens are left behind.

• Russia "won't forget" U.S. after denial of journalist visas