By Paul R. La Monica
Consumer staples and discretionary stocks have lagged the broader market over the past year, thanks to tariffs, economic worries, and limited artificial-intelligence buzz. The sectors' next test is whether investors will shop for two new consumer stocks that are about to go public.
Once Upon a Farm, the organic baby food company co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner (who will own a 7.4% stake following the initial public offering), and the furniture retailer Bob's Discount Furniture are set to make their Wall Street debuts during the week of Feb. 2. The two will trade on the New York Stock Exchange: Once Upon a Farm under the ticker symbol OFRM and Bob's under BOBS.
Both companies plan to sell their shares at a range of $17 to $19. Investment bankers will set their official stock price the evening before the initial public offering. At the high end of the range, Once Upon a Farm would raise $209 million through the sale of 11 million shares, while Bob's is looking to raise $370.5 million by the sale of 19.5 million shares.
But it could be a tough sell. Even though the IPO market rebounded sharply last year, with more than 200 companies going public, many of the best performers, such as CoreWeave and Circle Internet Group, made their entry earlier in the year. More recent deals -- including ticket reseller StubHub, design software firm Figma, fintech Klarna, robo-advisor investment firm Wealthfront, and this month's crypto offering BitGo -- have fizzled from their IPO prices.
Neither company is particularly large. Once Upon a Farm would be valued at about $764.4 million at the high end of its proposed price range. Bob's, which is majority-owned and controlled by private equity firm Bain Capital, would have a market capitalization of $2.5 billion. It has 206 stores in 26 states.
But the fact that neither company is a megacap could be a good selling point; lately, small-cap stocks have started to outperform their larger rivals. Once Upon a Farm also benefits from the star power of Garner, who has touted the company in commercials she has done for banking and credit card company Capital One.
Still, both companies face some hurdles. Once Upon a Farm is not yet profitable. The company lost $23.8 million in 2024 and another $39.8 million in the first half of 2025. Once Upon a Farm is highly dependent on a small group of powerful retailers -- such as Amazon and its Whole Foods subsidiary, Walmart, Target, Kroger, Costco Wholesale, among others -- to sell its products, which could mean small profit margins down the road.
Once Upon a Farm said in its IPO filing that "the growing presence of large-format retailers, discounters, and e-commerce retailers, and the integration of traditional and digital operations at key retailers" make the company "increasingly dependent on certain retailers that may have greater bargaining strength than we do."
Bob's faces some notable challenges as well. For one, there is tough competition from other furnishings companies like Wayfair and IKEA, as well as other big retail chains like Walmart, Target, and Big Lots.
Investors may also have questions about whether the recent turnaround at the company is sustainable. Same-store sales, which measure performance at stores open at least a year, fell in 2023 and 2024 following a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic. Same-store sales did rebound by 10.5% in the first nine months of 2025, though.
But further concerns about the health of the residential real estate market could hurt Bob's, too. Bob's acknowledged that risk in its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
"The housing market has and may continue to be impacted by a number of macroeconomic factors, including high interest rates and higher home prices putting pressure on housing affordability and resulting in a decline in existing home sales, inflation, and a shift in consumer spending toward services," the company said.
The good news is the company is profitable and earnings have grown over the past few years. Bob's said in its IPO filing that it hopes to use proceeds from the stock sale to help fund aggressive expansion plans; the hopes to grow its store count to more than 500 by 2035.
So keep an eye on Bob's and Once Upon a Farm once they start trading. The U.S. consumer might still be shopping until they drop, but investors may not feel the same way about consumer stocks.
Write to Paul R. La Monica at paul.lamonica@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 30, 2026 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)
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