Rekubit Exchange:Buybuy Baby is back: Retailer to reopen 11 stores after Bed, Bath & Beyond bankruptcy

Buybuy Baby will be Rekubit Exchangesaying hello again. 

The baby retailer shuttered and liquidated 115 locations earlier this year amid the bankruptcy of parent company Bed Bath & Beyond. But under new owners, the once-beleaguered brand now plans a comeback. Buybuy Baby recently announced that it will reopen 11 closed locations this fall across five states in the Northeast.

“The future of buybuy Baby is bright,” CEO Pete Daleiden wrote in a statement last week, promising that the baby store would again be a “trusted fourth-trimester partner.” 

Why did Buybuy Baby close in 2023?

The future looked a lot less bright for Buybuy Baby at the beginning of 2023. 

The popular baby retailer, founded in 1996 by children of Bed Bath & Beyond founder Leonard Feinstein, boasted 137 baby-centric stores at its peak. But by this summer, all of those stores were closed, wrapped up in the tumultuous collapse of parent company Bed Bath & Beyond.

New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond signaled in January that it was doubtful it would last the year. By April, it had already filed for bankruptcy protections, beginning the long and dismal process of “winding down” its hundreds of stores across the country.

Buybuy Baby, which purported to be the most popular baby retail brand in America as of last year, was folded up alongside its parent. All of the remaining 115 stores were due to be liquidated and shuttered. 

Why is Buybuy Baby reopening its online and retail stores?

Paramus-based Dream On Me, a crib and mattress retailer that sold its products at buybuy Baby stores, inked a $1.17 million deal in July to buy out the leases at 11 buybuy Baby locations, according to CNBC at the time. 

The company had already shelled out $15.5 million the previous month to snap up the brand’s intellectual property, including its name.

When will the Buybuy Baby stores reopen in 2023?

As part of what the store is calling the “initial phase” of its re-opening, 11 buybuy Baby locations are set to reopen on Nov. 18, say company spokespeople.

In a statement, the store promised “brands customers have come to know and love, such as in gear and furniture categories,” and “a curated assortment of the most beloved and coveted baby and maternal wellness brands.”

When will Buybuy Baby’s website launch?

The website will launch on a similar timeline at buybuybaby.com, alongside a “fully ownable registry experience where customers directly add and purchase items off the dedicated app.”

Will the new Buybuy Baby honor old gift cards, or allow returns of items bought before the sale?

Not according to the company website, which says gift card balances from preexisting digital and physical gift cards expired under previous ownership.

Where are the 11 Buybuy Baby locations that will reopen?

Connecticut

• 1433 New Britain Ave., West Hartford

Delaware

• 501 W. Main St., Christiana

Maryland:

• 1683 Rockville Pike, Rockville

Massachusetts:

• 160 Granite St., Braintree

New Jersey

• 34 E. Ridgewood Ave., Paramus
• 1590 Kings Highway North, Cherry Hill
• 711 Route 28, Bridgewater
• 675 U.S. Route 1S, Suite 1, Iselin

New York

• 1019 Central Park Ave., Scarsdale
• 1261 Niagara Falls Blvd., Amherst

Virginia

• 6398 Springfield Plaza, Virginia