SEC Company Response from BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. (NXH, BBBYW) (CIK 0001130713) (NXH) — Dec 14, 2007
BED BATH & BEYOND, INC. (NXH, BBBYW) (CIK 0001130713)
Date: Dec. 14, 2007 · CIK: 0001130713 · Accession: 0001104659-07-089045
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
Referenced dates: November 15, 2007, November 15, 2007
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CORRESP 1 filename1.htm December 14, 2007 By EDGAR and by Facsimile to (202) 772-9202 Securities and Exchange Commission 100 F Street Washington, D.C. 20549 Attention: Millwood Hobbs Staff Accountant Division of Corporation Finance Re: Overstock.com, Inc. SEC Comment Letter dated November 15, 2007 Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 Forms 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended September 30, 2007, June 30, 2007 and March 31, 2007 File No. 0-49799 Dear Mr. Hobbs: We write in response to your letter dated November 15, 2007 regarding the above-referenced filings. The following responses are numbered to correspond to the Staff’s comments. SEC Comment — 1. Where a comment below requests additional disclosure to be included, please show us in your supplemental response what the revised disclosures will look like. These additional disclosures should be included in your future filings. See responses below. SEC Comment — 2. Please disclose in tabular form for each period presented the amount or percentage of total revenue contributed by each class of similar products or services. See Item 101(c)(1)(i) of Regulation S-K. Below is a table showing the percentage of total revenue contributed by each class of similar products or services. We based our classifications on how management views our business. We will include this table in the MD&A section of future Reports on Form 10-K. For 2007, 2006 and 2005, the percentages of sales contributed by similar classes of products were as follows: Percentage of Sales Category 2007 2006 2005 BMMG(1), electronics and computers 20 % 22 % 22 % General merchandise 80 % 78 % 78 % Total 100 % 100 % 100 % (1) Books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, and video games. SEC Comment — 3. We note that you classify in fulfillment partner revenue amounts received for commissions and fees earned from various services rendered. Please revise your presentation in the statement of operations to separately report these amounts as service revenue distinct from product sales to comply with Rule 5-03(b)(1) of Regulation S-X. The fulfillment partner commissions and fees we earn are for our Auctions and Cars businesses (as we have disclosed in previous SEC filings). The combined total revenue from these services falls beneath the 10% threshold referred to in Rule 5-03(b) of Regulation S-X (they account for less than one-half of one percent of total revenue). Therefore, we do not separately present these amounts on our statement of operations, but classify them within fulfillment partner revenue. SEC Comment — 4. According to your website, you sell an extended warranty protection plan to your customers. Please disclose your accounting policy for this program and tell us the nature of the program and who is the primary obligor. Tell us your basis for how you report the sales and costs related to the sale of the warranty program and if your accounting complies with FTB 90-1. If the nature of the warranty program you sell requires you to estimate the costs relating to your obligations, tell us what consideration you gave to including in management’s discussion and analysis a discussion of these costs among your critical accounting estimates. For nearly all of our fulfillment partner sales transactions, we are the primary obligor and therefore our accounting policy is to record our fulfillment partner sales on a gross basis. However, the extended warranty protection plans that we sell are serviced through a fulfillment partner who is the primary obligor. Thus, FTB 90-1 does not apply. Under GAAP, we should recognize the revenue and related expenses at the time of sale on a net basis as we are not the primary obligor. However, as a matter of convenience we have historically recorded the revenue related to the sale of extended warranties in the same manner as most other fulfillment partner revenue (i.e., on a gross basis) because these sales are immaterial to our financial statements as a whole. In assessing materiality, we noted that the maximum effect on total revenue (if we were to have recorded extended warranties on a net basis rather than a gross basis) for the annual periods of 2005 and 2006 totaled 0.17% ($1.3 million of warranty revenue on $796.4 million of total revenue for fiscal 2006). For the quarterly periods from Q1 2006 through Q3 2007, the maximum effect on total revenue was 0.20% ($325,000 of warranty revenue on $158.7 million of total revenue in Q3 2006). After considering the other factors mentioned in SAB 99, we conclude that the effect of this change is immaterial. However, in future filings, we will record future extended warranty revenue on a net basis. SEC Comment — 5. You disclose that revenue is recognized when products are shipped to customers. Please expand your disclosure to state when title transfers to the customer. Supplementally please explain to us how your accounting policy for direct revenue sales complies with the delivery and performance requirements of SAB Topic 13:A. If shipping terms determine risk of loss during shipment and/or title transfer to the customer, please explain them to us and revise your disclosure to clarify these terms. If revenue on direct revenue sales is recognized prior to the transfer of title and delivery of the product to the customer, please clarify how your policy complies with GAAP. To your first request, we will expand our revenue recognition disclosure for direct revenue to state when title transfers to the customer by adding the following statement: “Direct revenue related to merchandise sales is recognized pursuant to a sales contract that provides for transfer of both title and risk of loss to the customer upon delivery to the carrier.” Applying the delivery and performance requirements of SAB Topic 13:A to our accounting policy for direct revenue recognition yields the following facts by each point (numbered to correspond to the applicable SAB Topic 13:A provisions): 1. Legal title passes at the point of shipment. Our business policy is that title and risk of loss pass to the customer once the product is delivered to the carrier. 2. We have no legal obligation to compensate the customer for goods that are lost or damaged in-transit. 3. The arrangement meets all other revenue-recognition criteria (evidence of an arrangement exists, our selling price to the customer is fixed or determinable, and collectibility is reasonably assured). 4-6. Although we have no legal obligation to compensate the customer for goods that are lost or damaged in transit, it is industry practice (and is required by the carrier since items are shipped on our account with the carrier) that we act as the liaison between the customer and the carrier if a product is lost or damaged in transit. Therefore, we generally replace the product or reimburse the customer for goods lost or damaged in transit, and then subsequently file a claim for reimbursement from the carrier. Based on the above analysis of the performance requirements of SAB Topic 13:A, and under the strict definition of risk of loss as defined in SAB Topic 13:A, we conclude that the full risk of loss does not pass to the customer until delivery of the product. Therefore, under a strict interpretation of SAB Topic 13:A, our direct revenue sales arguably should be classified as “synthetic FOB destination,” meaning that we would record revenue at the estimated delivery date, not the ship date. However, we believe that practical application points to our continued use of ship date due to the following facts: 1) The difference between recognizing revenue on known ship date or estimated delivery date is immaterial to our financial statements as a whole. In order to analyze the materiality of recording direct revenue based on estimated delivery date rather than a known ship date, we reviewed shipping and sales data related to merchandise we shipped immediately prior to the period ends for fiscal years 2006 and 2005 and for each fiscal quarter from Q1 2006 through Q3 2007 (periods to be presented in the 2007 Form 10-K). We sorted this data by shipping zone and originating warehouse. We then aligned this data to the estimated shipping transit time charts for each zone for our primary carriers (United Parcel Service and ABF Freight). Because there were no reports of unusual or delayed shipping services during these periods, we are confident that the carriers’ estimated standard shipping transit time charts were appropriate for use in developing our estimate. We next analyzed the difference between recognizing revenue at ship date versus at the estimated delivery date. After factoring in the roll-over effect of such differences (for thousands of individual orders with an average order size of approximately $120), the maximum effect on total revenue and net loss for any annual period analyzed totaled 0.35% and 1.63%, respectively. The maximum effect on total revenue and net loss for any quarterly period analyzed totaled 1.14% and 1.70%, respectively. After considering the other factors mentioned in SAB 99, we determined that the effect of this change would be immaterial. 2) For over 99% of our sales transactions, the effective risk of loss transfers when we deliver product to the carrier. Under SAB 13:A, if the customer does not incur risk of loss on damaged-in-transit or lost shipments, revenue is recognized at delivery date. However, when analyzing our historical product returns data (2004-2007), our carriers successfully delivered approximately 28.2 million of the 28.5 million orders placed on our website during that four-year period, approximately 99% of total orders (meaning only 1% of those orders were damaged-in-transit or lost during shipment). Of those orders that were not successfully delivered, we received reimbursement or returns from our carriers for a portion of the dollar value of such orders. Thus, we believe that a package is effectively “delivered” at the time it is picked up by the carrier. 3) The financial impact of any remaining obligation we have is immaterial, and is properly accounted for within our existing sales return reserve. We account for the estimated loss from damaged or lost shipments (net of our estimated claims recovery rate with the carriers) within our existing sales return reserve. 4) We can measure ship date more accurately than estimated delivery date. By using our known ship date, we (and our outside auditors) can verify revenue cutoff down to the individual invoice based on tracking information provided by the carrier. In addition, our financial system (which has numerous automated controls) records revenue based on a known ship date. While this was not requested by the SEC, we also reviewed the six delivery and performance requirements of SAB Topic 13:A discussed above for our fulfillment partner sales. We determined that these six requirements also applied to fulfillment partner revenue, because our shipping practices are the same whether we ship products directly or whether a fulfillment partner acts as our agent in shipping the product. As noted in greater detail in response to the SEC’s comment 6, to our customer, the source of the product is indistinguishable. As a result, we performed a similar SAB 99 analysis for fulfillment partner revenue, and when combined with the analysis of direct revenue, we determined that the difference between recognizing revenue based on ship date and estimated delivery date was immaterial. We noted that, after considering the roll-over effect of such differences, the maximum effect on total revenue and net loss for any annual period analyzed totaled 0.72% and 3.37%, respectively. The maximum effect on any quarterly period analyzed totaled 3.01% and 3.98%, respectively. After considering the other factors mentioned in SAB 99, we determined that the effect of this change would be immaterial. In order to be consistent with our direct revenue disclosure, we will expand our revenue recognition disclosure for fulfillment partner revenue to state when title transfers to the customer by adding the following statement: “Fulfillment partner revenue related to merchandise sales is recognized pursuant to a sales contract that provides for transfer of both title and risk of loss to the customer upon delivery to the carrier.” SEC Comment — 6. We note that you report revenue on a gross basis for sales of merchandise owned by other retailers who provide fulfillment services and ship merchandise to the customer. You refer to these sales as fulfillment partner revenues. In this regard, please provide us with a comprehensive response explaining why you believe your arrangements with the fulfillment partners meet the requirements of paragraphs 7 through 14 of EITF 99-19 for gross revenue reporting by separately addressing in detail each of the indicators discussed in these paragraphs. In your response, please clarify how the ordering and shipping process operates for these sales, when title to the merchandise is transferred from the partner to you and when title is subsequently transferred to the customer. Following are points 7-14 of EITF 99-19 and an explanation of the related facts that correspond to each point: 7. The company is the primary obligor in the arrangement. We sell a broad range of products under the Overstock.com brand name. We own some of the inventory we sell, and we source some of it from third parties (i.e., fulfillment partners). Products sourced from third-party fulfillment partners are offered alongside our own products, and the source of the product is indistinguishable to the customer. All items are sold to the customer under Overstock’s “Site User Terms and Conditions”. We are the primary obligor in fulfillment partner transactions for the following reasons: · All products offered on the Shopping website are sold by Overstock regardless of the source. Our Shopping site does not permit third-parties to sell directly to our customers. This is different from our Auction site, where we record all fees we earn from our Auction website on a net basis. · We provide the primary customer service for all products sold on our Shopping website (see Item 1.8 in Overstock.com Supplier Agreement). Customer interactions are only with our customer service representatives. If customer inquiries require information from our fulfillment partners, our customer service representatives work with the appropriate fulfillment partner to answer the customers’ question or resolve any issues (see Item 2.5 in Overstock.com Supplier Agreement). · We monitor the acceptability of the products sourced from all fulfillment partners. On the front end, we must approve fulfillment partners before they even submit products to sell on our website. In addition, all fulfillment partner products posted for sale on the website must first be pre-approved by Overstock. After the product sale, in addition to providing all customer service, we process and take title to the vast majority of product returns sourced from fulfillment partners to ensure further quality control (see Item 1.9 and Item 3 in Overstock.com Supplier Agreement). · We have the right to remove any fulfillment partner product from our website at any time for any reason or no reason and without notice (see Item 1.2 in Overstock.com Supplier Agreement). · We require our fulfillment partners to remove all unapproved marketing information from any product shipped to our customers, including non-Overstock logos, marketing and packaging materials. All pr