Dartmouth Bed Bath and Beyond Closing Permanently

DARTMOUTH — Bed Bath and Beyond has announced its Dartmouth store is among 87 locations that will be permanently closing — but some may not know that the home goods chain has deep New Bedford roots.

Widely expected to file for bankruptcy in the near future, Bed Bath and Beyond made the announcement with a list of soon-to-be-closed store locations posted to its website on Monday.

Five locations in Massachusetts will be closed, including stores in Dartmouth, Raynham, Dedham, Pittsfield, and Burlington.

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Older SouthCoast residents may remember one of the nation's first discount retailers: Arlan's Department Store, founded in New Bedford in 1945.

What they might not know, however, is that the two men who started Bed Bath and Beyond in the New York City suburbs in 1971 came from New Bedford.

A Wall Street Journal story about the company's founders shared by New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell on his Facebook page notes that Warren Eisenberg and Leonard Feinstein met while working at Arlan's.

The massive Arlan's store on Hathaway Road — now a Price Rite — opened in 1963.

According to the article, Eisenberg and Feinstein worked for the company for years, until they left in 1969 to start their own retail business — which at the time they just called Bed n' Bath.

With the advent of online shopping and the decline of retail, however, Bed Bath and Beyond just couldn't keep up.

After closing more than 100 locations — including one in Seekonk — last year, the home goods chain is still reportedly unable to pay its debts.

On Wednesday, the store at Dartmouth Towne Center on State Road still had closing sale signage in its windows, but many shelves stood empty and little merchandise remained.