If the name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe you’ll recognize its former name: Bed Bath & Beyond. Not the fabled Big Box category killer that fell on hard times and eventually melted down. This is the resurrected entity that has changed its name, corporate strategy, place of business and personnel more times over a shorter period than just about anybody else in the retail space. Its latest about-face is the cancellation of a deal to buy a real estate service, coming after its aborted deal to buy Lumber Liquidators and Cabinets to Go and its never-ending zigging and zagging on physical stores. Ironic for a company, don’t you think, whose CEO impresario Marcus Lemonis once talked about an “asset light” strategy? Through it all, Wall Street has not been amused: A stock that traded at $36 a share when Lemonis came aboard is now under two bucks and sinking fast. I’m afraid there’s a Great Beyond joke in here somewhere …again.


