Buy Buy Baby hits the auction block after parent company Bed Bath & Beyond's assets are sold off

Retailer Buy Buy Baby is set to hit the auction block after the bankruptcy of its parent company, Bed, Bath and Beyond.

The baby store is seen by analysts as the most valuable asset owned by the homeware chain, which is why it is being auctioned off separately.

CNBC reported that at least one interested bidder is looking to take over the retailer but has cooled on the idea of maintaining a physical footprint for the brand.

Buy Buy Baby had approximately 120 stores when Bed, Bath and Beyond filed for bankruptcy. In the third quarter of 2022, sales at Buy Buy Baby declined more than 20%.

Store closing signs can be seen at this store in Brooklyn, New York, earlier this year after Bed, Bath and Beyond announced it would be closing stores

The share price of the parent company has plummeted in the last year, in a fall from grace for the big box brand

Buy Buy Baby was founded in 1996 by Richard and Jeffrey Feinstein. The men are sons of Bed Bath & Beyond cofounder Leonard Feinstein. 

The company was purchased by Bed Bath & Beyond in 2007 for $67 million. 

Last week, Bed, Bath and Beyond was snapped up at auction for $21.5 million in a deal that will see all of its stores shutter and the brand move to solely online.

Dot-com juggernaut Overstock.com now holds the rights to the retailer's name - as well as its intellectual property and all of its assets.

The buyout is characteristic of the e-commerce company, whose original business model was exclusively selling surplus and returned merchandise online as it emerged from the digital boom of the late 90s.

The firm eventually widened its model to include first-party products and handmade goods produced by Overstock workers in developing nations, and is worth roughly $1billion today.

The company has already liquidated at least 18 failed companies at below-wholesale prices.

The company also manages the supply for other retailers, though Bed, Bath and Beyond will now bringing some much-needed name recognition to its sprawling inventory.

The entrance to a store in Anchorage is seen on the day the retail giant filed for Chapter 11 back in April

The buyer, dot-com juggernaut Overstock.com, now holds all of the rights to the retailer's name - and has already liquidated at least 19 failed companies at below-wholesale prices

Notably, the firm narrowed its focus last year from more general merchandise to selling only furniture and related home goods.

In fact, this year marks its first as an online home retailer - with the buying of Bed, Bath and Beyond showing devotion to this new model.

The big box chain is only the latest but not the last brick-and-mortar victim of what experts are calling a 'retail apocalypse', and its demise is among the most piercing in recent memory considering its preeminence in the American landscape. 

The company was founded in Springfield, New Jersey in 1971, and and has since ubiquitous in the US home goods market.

Its closure, however, signals a wider trend sweeping the US - the long-anticipated dissipation of brick-and-mortar stores, as online giants like Amazon go from strength to strength.