By Billy the Broker (I just want to stay anonymous)
Marcus Lemonis, the executive chairman of Beyond, Inc. (the phoenix supposedly rising from Bed Bath & Beyond’s ashes), won’t reopen stores in California because the state is “overregulated, expensive, and risky.” Governor Newsom’s press office fired back with a deliciously snarky response about the company no longer existing after bankruptcy, which, let’s be honest, was about as subtle as a freight train. And conservative gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton piled on, calling California on a social media platform the “most hostile business environment in the country.”
What we have here is a familiar California melodrama: spectacularly failed business executives blaming the Golden State for their own breathtaking incompetence while politicians score cheap points on both sides. Let me offer a different take, one grounded in actual facts rather than political theater.
First, the numbers that apparently escaped Mr. Lemonis’s attention. California represents roughly 10 percent of the entire U.S. retail market, with retailers generating $743 billion in sales in 2024, according to state sales tax data. The state’s GDP of $3.4 trillion makes it the fourth-largest economy in the world if it were a separate nation. California produces 9 percent of the nation’s international exports of goods and 20 percent of its exports of services. Any retail executive walking away from this market isn’t making a principled stand—he’s either spectacularly incompetent or desperately searching for a convenient scapegoat.
Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t fail because of California regulations. It failed because its management couldn’t figure out how to compete with Amazon, Target, and literally every other retailer that successfully navigated the same regulatory environment. The company was hemorrhaging money nationwide, not just in California. When you’re closing every store in America, blaming one state’s policies is like a sinking ship’s captain complaining that the lighthouse was too bright.
The real story here isn’t business regulation—it’s politics masquerading as economics with a healthy dose of executive ego-protection. Lemois protested that his decision to avoid California “wasn’t about politics,” which in corporate-speak translates to “this is 100 percent about politics.” When executives feel compelled to explicitly deny their political motivations, it usually means they’ve calculated that taking a public swing at California will play well with their customer base, their investors, or their own political aspirations. Nothing says “business acumen” quite like publicly torching a $743 billion market because you couldn’t figure out how to turn a profit there.
Which brings me to In-N-Out’s Lynsi Snyder, whose recent departure from California has been breathlessly framed as another exodus story. Unlike Lemonis in this instance (I know he runs successful businesses in other areas), Snyder actually runs a successful business in the state—In-N-Out generates an estimated $2.1 billion per year and operates more than 400 locations, most of them in California. When Snyder announced she was moving to Tennessee, she cited the challenges of “raising a family” and “doing business” in California. But here’s what the failed Bed Bath & Beyond executive should note: Snyder isn’t abandoning the market that made her fortune. In-N-Out isn’t moving its corporate headquarters out of California, and Snyder clarified that “each one of our locations is here to stay.”
That’s the difference between a real business leader and a failed one desperately hunting for someone else to blame. Snyder may be moving her family to Tennessee for perfectly legitimate reasons, but she’s not as dramatically flouncing out of the market like some rejected reality TV star. She’s opening a regional office to support eastward expansion while keeping her base in California. That’s called smart business, not scapegoating with a side of public theatrics.
The California retail market, by any objective measure, remains robust. Upper-income households across the nation, and by extension in California, as well, have increased their inflation-adjusted retail spending by nearly 17 percent since January 2018, and retail sales rose 0.6 percent in June 2025 and stand 4 percent higher than year-ago levels. California is home to 107,274 stores, including 70,322 local retailers. If the state were truly the business wasteland that failed executives claim, these numbers would tell a different story.
Yes, California has high taxes, expensive real estate, and complex regulations. It also has the largest, most affluent consumer market in the country, world-class infrastructure, and a workforce that has built some of the most successful companies in human history. Every successful retailer—from Apple to Walmart to Costco—has figured out how to thrive here. The ones that can’t are usually the ones with bigger problems than regulatory compliance.
The California exodus narrative serves a deliciously useful political purpose for both sides. Conservatives get to point to high-profile departures as evidence that liberal policies don’t work, while waving around examples like Bed Bath & Beyond as if a failed business model somehow proves regulatory policy. Liberals get to dismiss departing executives as tax-avoiding plutocrats who were never really committed to the state anyway. But the truth is more nuanced and far less politically satisfying than either side wants to admit.
Some companies and individuals are leaving California for perfectly legitimate business reasons—lower costs, better logistics, or strategic expansion opportunities. Others are leaving because they’ve cynically calculated that the political benefits of a public, dramatic departure outweigh the economic benefits of staying in the nation’s largest retail market. And some, like Bed Bath & Beyond’s leadership, are simply desperate to find someone—anyone—else to blame for their spectacular failures.
The market will sort this out, as it always does, with the brutal efficiency that failed executives seem to forget exists. Companies that can succeed in California will stay and prosper. Those who can’t will leave and manufacture excuses that sound more dignified than “we couldn’t figure out how to run a profitable business.” And spectacularly failed executives will continue to discover that regulatory compliance becomes remarkably easier when you actually have customers who want to buy what you’re selling.
California isn’t perfect—no state is. But when billionaire business owners who made their fortunes here suddenly start hunting for scapegoats, maybe we should ask harder questions about their real motivations. After all, if doing business in California were truly the impossible nightmare that Bed Bath & Beyond’s leadership claims, Silicon Valley would have relocated to South Dakota, Hollywood would be thriving in Wyoming, and In-N-Out would have given up on the state decades ago.
Instead, they’re all still here, making money hand over fist in this allegedly impossible business environment. Funny how that works when you’re actually competent at running a business.
Articles published in our Contributor section do not necessarily represent the views of The Registry or Mighty Dot Media, Inc. They represent a selection of topics chosen for the value of their editorial perspective. We welcome feedback and alternative positions on topics, and we will consider publishing those, as well.
