Bed Bath & Beyond will close its doors to the Burlington community April 8. The store is one of five North Carolina locations to end its retail operations in the state — the other locations include Raleigh, Gastonia, Greenville and Hickory. The chain is set to close in more than 280 locations across the nation in the coming months.
The home furnishings store, located in Burlington’s University Commons, sells items such as bedding, storage containers, kitchenware and bathroom needs. It’s usually popular during Elon University’s student move-in day at the beginning of each school year. Elon News Network visited the Burlington location two times. Employees at the store did not provide further comment on the closing.
Elon senior Wellsley Cohen said she’s been shopping at the Burlington location since she was a freshman, and worries that students in the future will encounter problems at other stores during future move-in days.
“It’s going to make it so a lot of students shop at Target, Walmart and TJMAXX, and it's going to be chaotic with the amount of people in those stores during move-in,” Cohen said.
Cohen said that closing this store will affect the local community.
“I feel like their closing is negative for the Elon community, especially because the student body is expanding,” Cohen said. “There’s going to be one less store for new students to shop at.”
An Elon parent Facebook page shared the news that the store was closing. One Elon parent, Marsha Jane DiFrango, said that she has seen many Elon students shop at the location within the past four years and thinks it as an important business in the community.
“A large portion of students shop there, and I can’t believe that Elon driven businesses haven't warranted keeping that store open,” DiFrango said.
Bed Bath & Beyond customer and Elon alum Corry Wilder ’81 also said closing this location will hurt the move-in process for Elon students.
“It’s sad,” Wilder said. “It's another big store closing. It’s going to affect the economy for sure, and a lot of students use it to buy things to move in, so they’ll be upset.”
The University Commons shopping plaza also includes two other stores with homegoods available for the community to purchase, including Target, TJMAXX and Ross.