Read the linked article. My reaction is "what were they thinking?". Stock buybacks may make sense for cash rich or companies with strong balance sheets, for a company already with a large amount of debt borrowing to finance buybacks is the ultimate in irresponsibility.
Stephanie Hayes of the time with another brilliant column. It’s funny and the whole thing is great. A sample Goodbye to yet another American corporate comfort that just couldn’t hang, filing for bankruptcy protection and falling to rest near brethren Toys R Us, Tuesday Morning, Stein Mart and Sports Authority. Goodbye to a big-box retail wonderland woefully behind the times, lost to the couch-surfing ease of internet shopping. And yet, goodbye to something, somehow, timeless. Goodbye to the stacks of invasive blue coupons refusing to be ignored, clogging the mailbox, sticking out of chaotic kitchen drawers, dangling from countless refrigerators via local pizza shop magnets. Goodbye to hectic parking lots, to automatic doors, to rushes of icy air conditioning, to fluorescent lights and cavernous warehouse ceilings. Goodbye to soft favorites playing gently overhead. Goodbye to “Unbreak My Heart.” Goodbye to epic posters of beautiful humans living their best lifestyles. A man, barefoot atop a burlap rug, holding an adorable infant staring at a bowl of brown eggs. A woman in a white bathrobe perched on the edge of a bathtub, hair in a chignon, setting the water temperature just so. A blissful couple gleefully chopping rainbow chard to accompany their pristine quiche. Requiem for Bed Bath & Beyond Requiem for Bed Bath & Beyond - Tampa Bay Times For more great content like this subscribe to the Tampa Bay Times app here:
Of all of these the only one I'm sad about is Toys R Us. What a magical place that I'll never get to take my kids to. I do understand they are reopening some small locations inside Macy's but that won't scratch the itch.
I too have fond memories of going there when my daughter was young. I don’t think about it anymore, because I’m completely out of that phase of life, at least, until we have grandchildren, assuming we ever do.