7 main themes regarding supply chain:

1. Meeting Customer Needs
2. Purchasing and Supplier Selection
3. Process Design and Lean
4. Inventory and Integrated Business Planning
5. Sustainability and Life Cycle Management
6. Risk Management and Future of SC

Select 1-2 of the six themes above and recommendation to Bed Bath & Beyond. Be sure to include at least one diagram.

After a grim series of events (see below for summary), Bed Bath & BeyondBBBY-1.62%needs nothing less than a holiday miracle. The question is: Who will deliver it?

Perhaps not the customers. Bed Bath & Beyond's latest quarter was as cheerlessas the company previously telegraphed. The company's same-store sales declined 26% in its quarter ended Aug. 27 compared with a year earlier, in line with the previous update. Even the normally outperforming buybuy Baby banner saw same-store sales decline by a high-teens percentage compared with a year earlier. Net loss was $366.2 million, nearly three times the number Wall Street analysts had penciled in. The company maintained its outlook for the full fiscal year ending next February, still expecting comparable-store sales to decline roughly 20%.

Interim Chief ExecutiveSue Govestressed on Thursday's call that last quarter's results don't yet reflect the changes Bed Bath & Beyond has taken to improve the business. The company on Aug. 31 announced a strategy that includes a sharp pivot away from selling private-label products to popular national brands such as Calphalon, closure of less productive stores and operational cost cuts.

Even so, commentary on that progress was opaque. Ms. Gove merely said there were "positive sales trends" in seasonal categories and national brands where in-stock positions and visual merchandising have improved. It is unclear, however, how many products fall into those specific categories. Other comments were more telling. The company said, for example, that it expects operating cash flow to be at break-even in the holiday quarter, a period that has traditionally been cash-flow positive. Even if Bed Bath & Beyond does everything right, demand remains weak for kitchen and home goods. TJX Cos.' highflying HomeGoods itself is expected to see same-store sales decline through its holiday quarter, according to analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

While the company bought itself some time by raising fresh debt last month, how much more time it can buy depends in part on the continued affection of retail investors. Bed Bath & Beyond filed a shelf registration a month ago to sell up to 12 million shares and has sold 3 million shares so far for proceeds of roughly $30 million.

Promisingly for the company, retail investors seem to have remained interested in it even after meme-stock whisperer and GameStop ChairmanRyan Cohensold off his entire stake in Bed Bath & Beyond for a large gain in August. In September, retail investors bought up roughly $12 million of Bed Bath & Beyond shares, far below their record $340 million of net purchases in August, but in line with the year-to-date monthly average excluding the August outlier, according to data from Vanda Research. Opportunistic share sales have worked for other meme stocks in the past, including AMC Entertainment Holdings. Ironically, it was exactly during the meme-stock mania of 2021the one that helped AMC sell stock at high pricesthat forced Bed Bath & Beyond to buy its own shares at suddenly elevated prices. Talk about bad timing. At today's depressed share price, Bed Bath's remaining share-sale authorization of 9 million shares would bring in less than $60 million in proceeds.

To thrive in the meme-stock universe, a company needs to be a full-throated participant and extremely lucky with timing. With Bed Bath & Beyond not meeting either of those criteria, its future will depend on more earthbound factors like selling enough holiday goods. (From WSJ 9/30/2022)

Chief Financial OfficerGustavo Arnaldied by suicide Friday after jumping from a New York building.

Mr. Arnal, 52 years old, died two days after he had briefed investors on the retalier's plans to secure new financing, slash jobs and close about a fifth of its namesake stores. The finance veteran had been with the company for about two years.

His death leaves Bed Bath & Beyond, which has been searching for a permanent chief executive, with a leadership gapat a time when vendors and investors have been worried about its operations. The company has been facing funding pressures and is undergoing a major overhaul of its strategy.

The leadership gap started in June when former CEOMark Trittonleft the company, after his efforts to overhaul it led to falling sales and profits. Independent directorSue Goveis interim CEO while the company looks for a permanent replacement.

Mr. Arnal, a longtime consumer-products executive, joined the home-goods retailer in April 2020. He was part of a new team assembled by Mr. Tritton. They pursued a strategy to revive sales by focusing on private-label goods, a move that alienated shoppers. Mr. Arnal was one of the few top executives to stay in his role after Mr. Tritton departed. Mr. Tritton declined to comment on Sunday.

Bed Bath & Beyond executives said last week that they were revamping the strategy, bringing back national brands and closing about 150 underperforming stores. The changes come as the company heads into the crucial holiday selling season when it and other chains are facing a pullback by shoppers.

Bed Bath & Beyond's shares have been on a roller coaster this year as investors bet on its future and bid up the stock after activist investorRyan Cohendisclosed a stake. The shares took a hit Aug. 18 when Mr. Cohen unloaded his entire stakein the company, about five months after initially acquiring his shares. (WSJ 9/4/2022)