Headquartered in Union, New Jersey, the chain operated stores in the United States and Canada, and was once counted among the Fortune 500 and the Forbes Global 2000.

In order to properly represent the size increase in its retail stores, the company changed its name to Bed Bath & Beyond in 1987.

[25] The activist investors highlighted several instances of perceived nepotism, including the acquisition of Buy Buy Baby, which was founded by two of Bed Bath & Beyond co-founder Leonard Feinstein's children, and the acquisition of Chef Central, which was created by co-founder Warren Eisenberg's son, as examples of poor business practices at Bed Bath & Beyond.

[6] On May 13, 2019, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that CEO Steven Temares would step down "effectively immediately" and would resign his seat on the board of directors.

Mary Winston, who had been appointed to the company's board as a result of the activist investment firms' efforts, replaced Temares as interim CEO.

[28][29] On November 4, 2019, Mark Tritton, previously chief merchandising officer at Target, started as Bed Bath & Beyond's CEO.

[35] Later that year in October, the company announced plans to sell the 80-store Christmas Tree Shops chain, along with its Massachusetts distribution center, to Massachusetts-based Handil Holdings LLC; the acquisition was finalized the following month.

[42][43] Subsequently, Bed Bath & Beyond reached a deal to give Cohen three board seats in exchange for his cooperation and the creation of a committee to execute his proposed plan.

[44] In July 2022, FCM BBBY Holdings, LLC, managed by Jake Freeman, also sent an open letter, as part of a Schedule 13G filing, asking the board of directors to consider their proposed plan to reduce Bed Bath & Beyond's debt and improve liquidity through convertible bond issuance.

[49] On September 2, 2022, Gustavo Arnal, the company's chief financial officer, committed suicide, jumping from the balcony of his New York City apartment.

According to court documents, the business does not have the "capacity or ability to independently effect a recapitalization or restructuring of the Canadian operations without access to cash and the support".

[73]Following the bankruptcy filing, Bed Bath & Beyond stopped accepting their popular coupons on April 26, 2023 and liquidation sales commenced at all remaining stores the next day.

[9] Shortly thereafter, numerous other retailers, including The Container Store, Big Lots, Boscov's, and Kirkland's, announced that they would honor unused Bed Bath & Beyond coupons for a limited time.

Industry analysts attribute Bed Bath & Beyond's failure to a number of factors, including a late entry to e-commerce, reduction in merchandise selection and quality, supply chain issues, competition from Walmart, Target, and HomeGoods, and debt accrued from stock buybacks.

[76][77][78] The latter is widely considered the largest reason for Bed Bath & Beyond's collapse, as the company's stock buyback schemes, in practice since 2004, were the source of much of its $5.2 billion debt.

[81] In a June 2023 bankruptcy auction, Overstock.com acquired the Bed Bath & Beyond name, and associated intellectual property, in a $21.5 million stalking-horse bid.

[12][82][83] Shortly thereafter, Overstock publicly announced its intention to rebrand its own operations under the Bed Bath & Beyond name after the acquisition closes.