Bed Bath & Beyond is back in California after vowing never to return

Bed Bath & Beyond is coming back to California less than a year after the company’s chairman vowed it wouldn’t reopen in the Golden State.

The home goods retailer will resurface through the rebranding of 98 The Container Store locations, including 12 storefronts in California, the company announced Thursday.

Five locations are in Southern California, including one in Los Angeles and another in El Segundo.

The stores will be called “The Container Store + Bed Bath & Beyond,” offering both organizational products and home merchandise.

The transition will start on Friday and involve liquidating 30% of The Container Store’s categories and products. The store formats will start changing in May.

“This is a reset with purpose,” Jen Pape, senior vice president of The Container Store, said in the release. “We are actively reshaping our stores to make room for what’s next.”

Bed Bath & Beyond once had 80 locations in strip malls and shopping centers across California, but shuttered all storefronts after filing for bankruptcy in 2023.

The retailer’s executive chairman, Marcus Lemonis, said in August that the state is over-regulated, expensive and creates a risky business environment.

Lemonis joined a slew of business executives to denounce California’s business environment. Many executives, small-business owners and entrepreneurs complain about the state’s high taxes and cost of living, which, coupled with strict environmental regulations, can hinder business operations.

Lemonis, a regular on Fox Business Network, said the decision to forgo business in California wasn’t political, but rather a move to protect employees and customers.

“It’s a system that makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open, and harder to deliver value to customers,” Lemonis wrote in a statement on X in August.

At the time, Gov. Gavin Newsom fired back at Lemonis’ claims about the state’s business landscape.

“After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed,” Newsrom said on X. “We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again.”

The retailer’s inability to ignore California shows how the state is still an economic leader, with a gross domestic product higher than that of any other state and all but three countries.

More companies have moved out of the state than moved in over the last decade. Yet that net loss is dwarfed by the more than 7,000 companies founded in California during that time, according to the Public Policy Institute.

Newsom welcomed the retailer back to the state.

“With a thriving economy growing faster than all other developed nations, California always reaches out with an open hand — not a closed fist,” he posted on X.

Lemonis responded with a post suggesting it got some kind of support from the state to offset the extra costs of doing business.

“Thank you for the massive incentives,” he said in an X post, adding, “we are happy to add @BedBathBeyond to our lineup so we can generate the revenue needed to hurdle the higher than normal operating cost.”

Bed Bath & Beyond acquired The Container Store, which sells storage and organization products, in April, for about $150 million in stock and convertible notes — part of the company’s attempt at a comeback after the bankruptcy.

The Container Store exited bankruptcy in early 2025, after filing in 2024.

The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.