Bed Bath & Beyond stores in Geneva, Crystal Lake, Wilmette now slated to close

More Bed Bath & Beyond stores in the Chicago area are closing, including in Geneva, Crystal Lake and Wilmette, the home goods chain quietly revealed by posting a new list showing 87 stores nationwide that it is shutting down.

The move comes after the chain said last week that it's in default on its loans and doesn't have sufficient funds to repay what it owes, and that it could be considering filing for bankruptcy. And it comes after it announced last August it would close about 150 of its then 769 namesake stores -- including in Schaumburg and Gurnee -- and slash its 32,000-person workforce by 20%.

On the latest list of closings is the Geneva store on Randall Road, the Crystal Lake store on Northwest Highway, and the Wilmette store on Lake Avenue. Stores in Forest Park and Chicago Ridge are also on the new list.

The stores in Schaumburg and Gurnee already have closed. The store in Vernon Hills also was on last year's closure list, but its location still shows as open on the chain's website.

Other stores remaining open in the suburbs include those on Waukegan Road in Deerfield, on Rand Road in Kildeer, on Butterfield Road in Downers Grove, and on Route 59 in Naperville.

Also on the new list of closures are five buybuy Baby locations -- one of which is in Chicago -- and all 49 remaining Harmon Face Value stores, which has sold cosmetics, according to reports by CNN and Crain's Chicago Business.

The chain warned on Jan. 5 that it was considering options including filing for bankruptcy, saying that there was "substantial doubt" that it could stay in business. A week later, it reported a 33% drop in sales and a widening loss for its fiscal third quarter that ended Nov. 26, compared with the year-ago period. Sales at stores opened at least a year -- a key indicator of a company's health -- dropped 32%.

Its recently appointed president and CEO, Sue Gove, blamed the poor holiday performance on inventory constraints and reduced credit limits that resulted in shortages of merchandise on store shelves.

Mired in a prolonged sales slump, the company announced last summer it would revert to its original strategy of focusing on national brands, instead of pushing its own store labels. That reverses a strategy embraced by its former CEO Mark Tritton, who was ousted in June after less than three years at the helm. It said it would get rid of one-third of its store brands, which had started to be rolled out in the previous or so.