OLD BED BATH & BEYOND BUILDINGS ARE BEING REPLACED BY PICKLEBALL?

Malls aren’t attracting teens like they used to.  So maybe they should chase after the aging Mallrats from the ’80s and ’90s, and this is the perfect way to do it:

In cities across America, malls are becoming INDOOR PICKLEBALL VENUES.

The Pickleball courts are being set up in larger retail spaces that have recently become available, like Sears, Macy's and now Bed Bath & Beyond.

CNN notes that it’s already happened in about a dozen places, and it could become a nationwide trend because both bigger pickleball chains and smaller regional clubs are moving into mall spaces.

It makes sense:  Pickleball is growing so fast that it’s outpacing the availability of outdoor courts in many places.  And at the same time, online shopping is making huge retail spaces harder to fill.

Meanwhile in Canada….Entrepreneur Doug Putman taking over 21 locations, and Canadian Tire moving into some, too. 

Serial entrepreneur Doug Putman plans to launch his latest retail venture by taking over most of the remnants of Bed Bath & Beyond, in a new chain called Rooms + Spaces.

In total, rooms + Spaces will launch with 800,000 square feet of retail space, plus an e-commerce website. The company will be hiring about 500 people off the bat, and the venture will be led by Greg Dyer, the former general manager for Bed Bath & Beyond in Canada.