What happened
Shares of The Container Store (TCS 1.30%) fell sharply on Thursday, losing as much as 15% earlier in the session, ultimately ending the day down 14.6%.
There didn't appear to be any company-specific news driving down the organization-and-storage products retailer, but evidence suggests that comments made by the executive from another home-goods retailer brought down The Container Store, as well.
So what
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) reported its second-quarter financial results after the market close on Wednesday, and the results were dismal. The company missed analysts' consensus estimates on both the top and bottom lines. While that was bad enough, the home-furnishings retailer also slashed its full-year profit forecast.
Image source: Getty Images.
On the Q2 earnings conference call, management cited "unprecedented supply chain challenges" caused by "external disruptive forces." Bed Bath & Beyond also blamed a rise in COVID-19 cases in three key states -- Florida, Texas, and California -- as negatively impacting revenue. "It's just gotten significantly tougher in the last couple of months -- late into the quarter," said CEO Mark Triton.
So what does all this have to do with The Container Store? In a nutshell, the challenges that Bed Bath & Beyond laid out could be true for many retailers. The results show that freight costs are eating into the company's profit margins, a paradigm that's likely to bleed over into other similarly situated retailers.
The Container Store has yet to report its second-quarter results, having ended its fiscal first quarter on July 3. If the timing cited by Triton is accurate, it suggests The Container Store might be experiencing the same issues reported by Bed Bath & Beyond, but investors won't know for sure until it reports in early November.
Now what
The all-important holiday season is just months away, and retailers are already feeling the pinch. We've been hearing about freight costs and supply-chain issues for some time now. Investors fear that The Container Store may get caught up by the same challenges.
That said, for investors with a sufficiently longtime horizon, disappointing results in a single quarter -- if they materialize -- shouldn't change the investing thesis for The Container Store.
