The thing about economies is, they never stay still. Indomitable brands fade away. Power corporations implode and vanish. Nothing stays the same.

Still, it's pretty shocking to see it happen in real time like this:

Bankrupt retailer Bed, Bath and Beyond has been snapped up at auction for a $21.5 million - in a deal that will see all its stores shutter and the brand live on in name only.

Laid bare by court documents Thursday, the purchase comes week after the e-commerce firm filed for Chapter 11 - attempting to reorganize its assets and pawn them off to the highest bidder.

Triple B handing those keys off like:

Seriously though, it's pretty shocking. At one point Bed, Bath and Beyond was ubiquitous throughout the country. It was everywhere. Every new strip of stores, every new shopping center in Southern California or open-air mall in Maryland, everywhere you went it was there. It's unsurprising that it hit a whopping $17 billion market cap in 2013:

That means its $21.5 million sale this week represents a staggering market cap decline of 99.9%. You can't fake those numbers. That's a legit collapse right there.

It happens. Everything changes. The jobs and economic activity once provided by BBB will shift somewhere else, somewhere more productive and beneficial.

It's rough to watch it play out, though.