Stimulus Purchases Drive Bed Bath & Beyond Shares Higher Than Expected

Bed Bath & Beyond’s shares rose 3.9% on Friday after CEO Mark Tritton made comments that the household items company exceeded growth expectations in March, Yahoo! reports.
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Consumers appear to have been using stimulus checks in droves to make small upgrades to their homes. Tritton said in a conversation with “Yahoo Finance Live,” “We have seen overall growth, February was strong. We saw the results in March come about 10% growth. We are dramatically exceeding that growth rate in the month of March.”
Accelerated vaccination rates have contributed to a surge in retail sales in recent months. According to the Department of Commerce, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services for March 2021 increased 9.8% from the previous month and 27.7% above March 2020. Total sales for January 2021 through March 2021 were up 14.3% from the same period a year ago.
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Consumer retail confidence has increased as the economy has been picking up post-pandemic. For Bed Bath & Beyond in particular, the increased consumer spending is a positive turnaround from a dismal past week. Shares for the company plunged 16% last week as the company announced more store closures in 2021 and offered a mixed first quarter report, Yahoo! reports.
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