Bed Bath and Beyond’s Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis just announced that the company is staging a big comeback, with plans to open over 300 stores across the nation.
Stores will be opened in nearly every U.S. state — with one huge exception.
There will not be any physical locations in California, due to the deep blue state’s policies that hurt businesses.
Lemonis announced:
🚨NEW: Bed Bath & Beyond chairman Marcus Lemonis announces a major comeback with more than 300 new stores nationwide.
None of them will be located in Gavin Newsom’s California. Good call.
pic.twitter.com/MpOKt3ZPYc— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 20, 2025
In a statement, Lemonis wrote,
“This decision isn’t about politics — it’s about reality. California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America.”
Eric Daughtery broke down the reasons Lemonis gave as to why they are not opening stores in California:
🚨 BREAKING: In another stunning embarrassment for Gavin Newsom, the Chairman of Bed Bath & Beyond announces they will NOT open any retail stores in California.
"We're taking a stand because it's time for common sense."
The reasoning:
– High taxes
– High fees
– Forced,… pic.twitter.com/QxE6Rr0rSE— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 20, 2025
BREAKING: In another stunning embarrassment for Gavin Newsom, the Chairman of Bed Bath & Beyond announces they will NOT open any retail stores in California.
“We’re taking a stand because it’s time for common sense.”
The reasoning:
– High taxes
– High fees
ADVERTISEMENT– Forced, unsustainable wages
“California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America.”
The Chairman said, “We will have stores in almost every other state.”
Rumor has it, Gavin Newsom’s team is currently plugging this press release into ChatGPT and asking for a Trump Imitation response as a coping mechanism. @GovPressOffice
You can read Lemonis’s full statement here for yourself:
In case that text is too small to read, here it is again:
Statement from Marcus Lemonis, Executive Chairman of Bed Bath & Beyond
ADVERTISEMENTWe will not open or operate retail stores in California.
This decision isn’t about politics — it’s about reality.
California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive, and risky environments for businesses in America. It’s a system that makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open, and harder to deliver value to customers.
The result? Higher taxes, higher fees, higher wages that many businesses simply cannot sustain, and endless regulations that strangle growth. Even when the state announces a budget surplus, it’s built on the backs of ordinary citizens who are paying too much and businesses who are squeezed until they break.
At Bed Bath & Beyond, our responsibility is to our customers and our shareholders. We will not participate in a system that undermines both. Instead, we are investing in a California strategy that works: 24 48 hour delivery, and in many cases, same-day service. Californians will continue to get the products they love through BedBathandBeyond.com
— but without the inflated costs created by an unsustainable model.
We’re taking a stand because it’s time for common sense.
Businesses deserve the chance to succeed. Employees deserve jobs that last. And customers deserve fair prices.
California’s system delivers the opposite. That’s why Bed Bath & Beyond will serve California customers directly through BedBathandBeyond.com, on our terms, and with their best interests at heart.
As you may remember, Bed Bath & Beyond went bankrupt a few years ago and became online-only.
Now, they are planning to revamp the company and return to physical locations.
One Bed Bath & Beyond location has already been opened, in the red state of Tennessee!
From Fox Business:
Lemonis said the company won’t participate in a system that he says undermines both its customers and shareholders. But the company isn’t alienating its California customers. Instead, Lemonis said the company is investing in a strategy that will enable Californians to get products from BedBathandBeyond.com that will be delivered between 24 and 48 hours. In many cases, same-day service will be offered, Lemonis said, noting that it will help the company avoid the “inflated costs created by an unsustainable model.”
This comes as the ailing company fights its way back to relevance after it collapsed in 2023 from mounting debt and several failed turnaround strategies. Under its parent company, renamed from Beyond Inc. to Bed Bath & Beyond this week, the retailer is returning to brick-and-mortar shops with the first Bed Bath & Beyond Home store opening in Nashville earlier this month.
The company is planning to open 300 shops nationwide over the next two years.
Newsom’s Press Office responded to the embarrassing news with this snarky reply:
After their bankruptcy and closure of every store, like most Americans, we thought Bed, Bath & Beyond no longer existed.
We wish them well in their efforts to become relevant again as they try to open a 2nd store. https://t.co/jJt6i5icEx
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 20, 2025
Backup, just in case they regret that and delete it:
I wonder if Newsom and his team will still think it’s funny as more businesses flee California due to their policies and the state’s economy collapses…
Lemonis wasn’t fazed by their stupid reply.
He pushed back on Newsom during an interview with Sean Hannity:
Bed Bath & Beyond Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis pushes back on Gavin Newsom’s attacks after the company announced it will not open any stores in California:
"Well, I think the thing that was surprising to me was that I tried to articulate, in a non-aggressive way, exactly… pic.twitter.com/Kh6979ACUA— Sean Hannity 🇺🇸 (@seanhannity) August 21, 2025
Bed Bath & Beyond Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis pushes back on Gavin Newsom’s attacks after the company announced it will not open any stores in California:
“Well, I think the thing that was surprising to me was that I tried to articulate, in a non-aggressive way, exactly why our company wasn’t going to reinvest capital in California. What I found out this afternoon was that Governor Newsom had enough time to respond to a tweet to remind everyone in America that in 2023 the company went out of business. Now we’re trying to make a comeback, and I would think that a governor would want to attract investment and attract capital into the state. In fact, he did the opposite; he rejected it.”
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