Harmon

Bed Bath & Beyond's (BB&B) merchandising concept — a massive space offering a plethora of products — is known in the retail world as "big box." It's the opposite approach of carefully curated home stores like Williams-Sonoma and Crate and Barrel, but was widely popular when BB&B first hit the market. Toys"R"Us was the first retailer to adopt this "category-killer strategy," explains retail analyst Warren Shoulberg. In the pre-e-commerce era, retailers wanted to keep shoppers in stores by offering them anything and everything.

UNION, N.J. — Bed Bath & Beyond's aggressive promotional strategy appears to be paying off as the company reported another quarter of strong sales. The company reported that net sales for the fiscal second quarter of 2011 were approximately $2.314 billion, an increase of approximately 8.3% from net sales of approximately $2.137 billion reported in the fiscal second quarter of 2010. Comparable-store sales in the fiscal second quarter of 2011 increased by approximately 5.6%, compared with an increase of approximately 7.4% in last year's fiscal second quarter. Bed Bath & Beyond's bottom line also saw a boost, with the