The executive chair of the bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond claims the company will start reopening its shuttered stores, but will refuse to open any California stores, because he says it’s impossible to do business in the world’s fourth-largest economy.

When the South of Market Bed Bath & Beyond on Ninth Street closed permanently in February 2023, it was a sign that the whole chain of the big-box retailer’s stores nationwide might close because of their bankruptcy. Six months later, that is exactly what happened. Now trying to emerge from bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond claims that they are reopening their stores, but thus far have opened only one in the entire US (Nashville, Tennessee).

Though in an attention-grabbing gambit, the chain's executive chairman Marcus Lemonis took to Xitter to declare that Bed Bath & Beyond would refuse to reopen any of its California stores.


“This decision isn’t about politics — it’s about reality,” Lemonis said in his statement. “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.”

But this decision is absolutely about politics. Lemonis has turned into a Trump supporter, and he even appeared on Celebrity Apprentice in 2012. He currently appears on two reality shows (CNBC’s The Profit and Fox’s The Fixer), so the term “attention whore” may be an apt description of Lemonis. And he may be doing this demonstratively, to get Trump to give his struggling company some sweetheart government money deal.

In fairness, Marcus Lemonis did not drive Bed Bath & Beyond into bankruptcy. He was appointed as executive chair when Overstock.com bought the chain’s assets at a bankruptcy auction.

But also in fairness, the state of California has the world’s fourth-largest economy, with a GDP of $4 trillion. So somehow, plenty of businesses are somehow able to be successful here.

And Lemonis’s dig at the state was not lost on California Governor Gavin Newsom.


“After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed,” Newsom’s office tweeted Wednesday. “We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again as they try to open a 2nd store.”

Related: Bed Bath & Beyond Is Closing Its SoMa Store [SFist]

Image: Kevin Y via Yelp