Bed, Bath & Beyond has closed its store at The Outlet Collection in Auburn after 27 years. ROBERT WHALE, Sound Publishing

Bed, Bath & Beyond has closed its store at The Outlet Collection in Auburn after 27 years. ROBERT WHALE, Sound Publishing

Bed, Bath & Beyond closes its Auburn store at The Outlet Collection

Store opened in 1995 when mall first opened

Bed, Bath & Beyond has closed its store at The Outlet Collection Seattle in Auburn, apparently, for good.

The troubled chain released an updated list of store closures on Jan. 30 that included the Auburn location and its recently closed store in Lakewood. The Auburn store opened in 1995.

Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that it is in default on its loans and doesn’t have the money to pay back what it already owes. Last August, the company announced that it would close 150 of its stores and cut its workforce by 20%.

On Jan. 5, Bed Bath & Beyond warned that it was mulling options, among them filing for bankruptcy, conceding “substantial doubt” that it could stay in business.

A week later, it reported a 33% drop in sales and an expanding loss for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Nov. 26, compared with where it was a year before. Sales at stores opened at least a year dropped 32%.

Obviously, the closure leaves behind significant empty space for The Outlet Collection to fill. But maybe not for long, according to Lacey Katz, special leasing manager for The Outlet Collection Seattle.

Katz hinted at possible new tenants.

“Nothing we can share yet, but we should have some exciting news soon,” Katz said.

All of the Bed Bath & Beyond stores set to close vary from 18,000 to 70,000 square feet.

According to the company’s website, the Auburn store was the first Bed, Bath & Beyond to open in the state of Washington, which it did when today’s Outlet Collection, then known as The Supermall, opened on Aug. 8, 1995.

Fourteen locations in Washington remain open, including Tukwila, Puyallup and Issaquah.


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