Bed Bath & Beyond's founders admit their biggest mistake: 'We missed the boat on the internet'

• Bed Bath & Beyond's founders say they "missed the boat on the internet."
• Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein made the admission in a Wall Street Journal article Friday.

Bed Bath & Beyond founders Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein were ahead of the times when it came to selling designer sheets and other types of home goods.

But they admit that there was one trend they weren't ahead of: "We missed the boat on the internet," Eisenberg told the Wall Street Journal on Friday.

That mistake is one of the main reasons that Bed Bath & Beyond is dealing with a loan default and a potential bankruptcy and struggles to keep items on its shelves.

While other retailers invested in online options like store pick-up and delivery options, Bed Bath & Beyond was slower to introduce those services. Some former, unnamed employees who spoke to the Journal said that was because Eisenberg and Feinstein took a frugal approach to spending at the company, including on e-commerce.

But the co-founders push back on that idea. "If we made an error by not moving fast enough into the internet, it wasn't because we wouldn't spend the money," Eisenberg told the Journal. "It was that we goofed."

Eisenberg, 92, and Feinstein, 85, founded Bed Bath & Beyond in 1971 and made it an early success among discount retailers. But they haven't had a role at the company since 2019, when they were forced out by a trio of activist investors: Legion Partners, Macellum Capital, and Ancora Advisors.

Despite the rise of online shopping, the founders expected consumers to stick to stores for most of their purchases.

"If you told me that some of my grandchildren will get all their dresses on the internet, I would say, 'People like to go out and shop. It's a social thing to do,'" Eisenberg told the Journal. "We didn't realize fast enough how the internet would have such a major effect on retail."