The first store I visited was Bed Bath & Beyond in NYC's Tribeca neighborhood.
This particular location was only one floor.
The customer service center was immediately next to the entrance. Bed Bath & Beyond allows returns of almost any product at any time, with or without a receipt, for a refund.
Without any record of a purchase, customers can get an 80% refund. The customer service center also had a station for online order pick-ups.
The kitchen department was the first section of the store. It was very well labeled and organized, despite reports saying that Bed Bath & Beyond stores tend to be a mess.
I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of everything there was — merchandise was stacked from floor to ceiling in almost every part of the store.
The kitchen department took up almost a quarter of the store, selling cutlery, baking supplies, appliances, and other kitchen essentials.
You can find just about any kitchen utensil.
Bed Bath & Beyond had signs in this part of the store advertising its same-day home delivery in Manhattan.
The store also offers installation services through a partnership with Porch, which matches shoppers with home-improvement professionals.
Just past the kitchen section were a few aisles dedicated to cleaning and organizing a home. There was a wall of vacuum cleaners next to a massive wall of hangers, and in the middle were stacks of storage tubs of all sizes for anywhere between $20-$90.
Prices for storage tubs varied depending on the size.
This part of the store was a little less organized than the rest of the store, and it definitely felt more cluttered. However, it carried everything needed to clean and organize a home — containers, crates, different types of storage for clothing, jewelry, shoes, makeup, and so on.
It also had dusters, brooms, and other cleaning supplies.
There were quite a few messy areas of the store, like this shelf that sold mirrors, coffee makers, storage bags, and pillows.
It didn't help with how overwhelming the store was.
Bed Bath & Beyond had a large bedding section where products were organized by brand and color.
The Container Store doesn't have a comparable department.
There was a similar bath section, which carried trash bins and bathroom sets in an array of styles.
The retailer carries lots of bathroom accessories.
A huge part of the store was devoted to towels, but above my eye level, I could see that there was actually just one towel on each shelf. It had been folded around foam padding to make it seem like there were more.
Towels were another product not sold at The Container Store.
Bed Bath & Beyond also sells products typical of a drugstore, like shampoo, conditioner, and over-the-counter medication.
Prices are about the same as at a drugstore, with products like shampoo mostly ranging between $3 and $12.
Around the bend was a small section of outdoor decor that had furniture, water coolers, pool floats, and other seasonal products.
I didn't even realize I had gone through almost the entire store at this point — after a while, all the tall shelves stacked with so many products started feeling like a maze, and I completely lost track of where I was.
Across from the seasonal gear was an electronics display. It carried products from Amazon, Google, and Phillips, but it was a such a small shelf that it could have easily gone unnoticed.
Smart home technology is growing in popularity.
There was a ton of smaller merchandise for sale near the registers. Like the return policy, Bed Bath & Beyond is very lenient with its coupon policies, with most locations allowing customers to use multiple coupons at once, use expired coupons, and use coupons on already-discounted items. It also price-matches competitors.
The store was clean, but generally felt overwhelming and cramped.
The next store I went to was The Container Store in midtown Manhattan.
At the time I visited, there was a sale on closet essentials.
Like at Bed Bath & Beyond, one of the first things in the store was the customer service center. The store had online order pickup and home delivery, though the delivery minimum was $10 more here. The return policy was similar to Bed Bath & Beyond — The Container Store accepts returns with or without a receipt, but returns made after 120 days or without a receipt can only get store credit, not a refund.
Signs for the company's return policy were prominently placed.
Merchandise was stacked floor to ceiling throughout the store in similar fashion to Bed Bath & Beyond, but it was much more spread out and organized.
The Container Store was laid out in a much more straightforward way.
There were a ton of storage bins similar to Bed Bath & Beyond, but The Container Store had a much bigger variety of sizes and styles. Most products were marked down 25%-30% off, and prices were comparable to Bed Bath & Beyond.
Though there weren't as many coupons readily available, the sales made up for it.
The first floor seemed to be entirely dedicated to closets, with aisle after aisle of organizers for different articles of clothing, as well as products like jewelry organizers, laundry detergent, and garment bags.
And as you can see, they were having a pretty good sale on their organizational products.
The back of the floor was devoted to custom closets, which was something Bed Bath & Beyond did not have. There were options for a variety of budgets, and designs for closets of any size.
Some of the displays were set up like closets so that the customers could get a feel for how the product might look in their home.
Upstairs, there was a greater variety of products. Right in front of the staircase was another assortment of storage bins.
So many bins!
There was a big office department selling desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and smaller products like planners, pens and pencils, and desk organizers.
The Container Store did not have a bedding department like Bed Bath & Beyond, but Bed Bath & Beyond offered a fraction of the office supplies that the The Container Store did.
The bath section of The Container Store seemed to carry almost exactly the same products as Bed Bath & Beyond.
The Container Store also offered a wide variety of bathroom accessories.
Even more storage units surrounded the office supplies, different from the ones downstairs.
The containers lined the aisles.
Towards the back, there was small kids section...
This section featured more brightly colored products.
...and a small gift wrapping section. Bed Bath & Beyond had a gift and registry station instead of a gift wrap aisle.
There was a solid collection of gift wrapping options.
On the other end of the floor were laundry bins, detergent, and dryer sheets...
Their selection of laundry bins was impressive.
...and a cleaning supply aisle that was about equal to that of Bed Bath & Beyond.
Brooms, dusters, dish scrubbers were all available here.
The kitchen department was very similar to that of Bed Bath & Beyond, but was organized much better. It had cutlery stacked floor to ceiling, tons of containers, reusable grocery and produce bags, and kitchen storage solutions.
While it was a lot of merchandise, it was easier to navigate than Bed Bath & Beyond was.
Where Bed Bath & Beyond had more appliances, The Container Store sold more storage units. On the storage units were prop foods from Whole Foods, though they didn't seem to be for sale.
The props helped show how the product might look in a customer's home.
Eventually I found my way to the register. While Bed Bath & Beyond had more bedding, appliances, decor, and personal care, The Container Store had more customizable options, the same amount to offer for laundry, cleaning, kitchen, and bath, and was much easier to navigate making it an all around better shopping experience.
Bed Bath and Beyond carries a lot of products, but only a small selection of each type of item. The Container Store, though, offers a greater variety of the products it carries.