Share to twitterAt Home's miserable quarter, which caused the stock to lose more than half its value, and the continuing turmoil at Bed Bath & Beyond have some people thinking the overall home sector is about to start tanking. The sky isn’t falling. Maybe the roof has a few leaks, but the home furnishings and improvement segments of retailing are still doing fine—and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.
Yes, there are some small red flags, magenta Post-it notes if you will. Yes, the At Home quarter was a mess, but it should be noted that the company is still profitable and saw a sales increase of nearly 20%. Still, it missed analyst forecasts and its projections for 2020 were seriously downgraded. But At Home has always been a risky play, with a format and business model that seemed to go against the grain: huge stores, and lots more of them every quarter with absolutely zero online business.
Wayfair, which makes its home in home, is continuing to advance at impressive rates. And even though its bottom line is getting redder by the quarter, there’s no denying it is growing its sales. Other online players from Amazon to Casper all seem to have good home businesses.