Bed, Bath and Beyond 2000 Annual Report Download - page 6

BED BATH & BEYOND ANNUAL REPORT 2000
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make merchandising and operating decisions
not customary even for store managers in a
centralized operation. Although this is a
difficult and expensive way to operate, this
operating culture not only distinguishes us
from our direct competitors, but is largely
responsible for the consistently superior,
long-term results we’ve been able to achieve.
At Bed Bath & Beyond we recognize that in
order to maintain our leadership position, we must
constantly change and innovate. Whether it be new
merchandise items, new departments, system and process
enhancements, new customer service initiatives, or a new
look in store fixturing or design, we continue to examine
closely everything we do with a view towards doing it
better, striving to improve constantly. Many of our most
creative new ideas over the years have come from our
store associates through their daily contact with our
customers, who, put simply, are the only reason we exist.
We are quite proud that, over the years, we’ve been
able to offer our customers the most extensive line of
value-priced, nationally branded merchandise available
anywhere in our industry. Our stores also
feature hundreds of items, sourced from all
over the world, which are found exclusively
at Bed Bath & Beyond. Through our
everyday low pricing policy, we assure our
customers of our best price every day, without
resorting to promotional gimmicks or
unsupportable claims. In fact, we’ve been able
to maintain an extremely efficient, low cost
advertising policy, and we continue to benefit from
substantial “word-of-mouth” advertising.
Over the years we’ve spoken often about
“merchandising the mix,” which refers to our ability to
identify or create good markup items, and to generate
exceptional volume on these items. Our organization
understands that skilled buying and pricing of the
merchandise, combined with selling a better mix with
increased unit volume, produces superior gross profit
results. Here again, decentralization, which takes
advantage of the merchandising talents in our stores,
has enabled us to outperform the competition by a
widening degree over the past three decades.