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Big Lots
American discount furniture, grocery, seasonal, and home decor retail company. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Big Lots Stores, Inc. (stylized as Big Lots!) is an American discount retail chain, specializing in the sale of closeout and overstock merchandise. Founded in 1967 as Consolidated Stores, the chain is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and includes over 900 locations across the United States.[6]
 | This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. (January 2020) |
Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2024, and later in December, the chain announced that it would cease operations, liquidate, and close all remaining stores. Liquidation sales began in December 2024[6] and all stores were expected to close in 2025.[7] On December 28, 2024, Big Lots reached an agreement with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners to transfer 200–400 stores and one or two distribution centers to Variety Wholesalers, with the remaining stores to be permanently closed.[8]
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History
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Early years
The first closeout store, Odd Lots, opened in 1982 in Columbus. Due to a naming conflict with Revco’s Odd Lot Trading Co., the company rebranded its stores outside of Ohio as Big & Small Lots, later consolidating all stores under the Big Lots name.[9][10][11][12]
Consolidated Stores was also an investor in the DeLorean Motor Company and took possession of unsold vehicles after the automaker’s 1982 bankruptcy.[13][14] The company went public in 1985 on the American Stock Exchange and switched to the New York Stock Exchange in 1986 under the symbol CNS.[15]
During the 1990s, Consolidated acquired Toy Liquidators (1994) and KB Toys (1996), which it later sold to Bain Capital in 2000.[16][17][18] In 1998, it purchased MacFrugals (Pic ‘N’ Save) for $995 million in stock.[19][11] The company was renamed Big Lots, Inc. in 2001, changing its ticker symbol to BLI, and later to BIG in 2006.[20][21][22] In 2005, it closed 170 stores, including all standalone furniture locations.[23]
2025 shooting
In July 2025, a firearm discharged inside a Big Lots store in Covington, Georgia, after a customer accidentally dropped her purse at the checkout counter. The gun, which was inside the purse, fired upon impact with the floor, injuring the woman’s ankle and grazing a relative. Prosecutors declined to press charges.[24]
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Bankruptcy
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Big Lots, formerly the largest close-out retailer in the United States, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September 2024. The filing followed several years of declining sales, increasing debt, and unsuccessful efforts to revive the business. The case is cited as an example of how economic pressures, changes in consumer behavior, and strategic missteps can contribute to the collapse of a long-standing retail chain.[25][26][27]
Big Lots attributed its bankruptcy to persistent inflation and high interest rates, which it said had reduced spending by its core lower-income customers. However, court documents indicated that the company’s financial problems stemmed from a heavily leveraged balance sheet, including sale-leaseback agreements, rising logistics costs, and nine consecutive quarters of same-store sales declines.[25][26][27] The Chapter 11 filing enabled the company to secure $707.5 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing and propose a stalking-horse sale to Nexus Capital.[25][26][28] After the deal fell through in December 2024, liquidation sales began at all 963 stores.[29][30][31] In January 2025, asset management firm Gordon Brothers acquired the Big Lots brand through bankruptcy proceedings and arranged to transfer between 200 and 400 store leases to Variety Wholesalers.[32][33] Reopenings started in April 2025, with 132 additional locations scheduled to open in May.[34]
One of the key factors contributing to Big Lots’ financial decline was a sustained drop in revenue. The company’s annual revenue fell from $6.19 billion in 2020 to $4.51 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis in 2024, a decline of 27.1%.[35] Comparable store sales decreased by 9.9% in the first quarter of 2024 and 8.6% in the fourth quarter of 2023, extending a streak of nine consecutive quarters of negative same-store sales.[36][37]
A store, Big Lots Store No. 1, was in Berwick Plaza Shopping Center in Columbus, Ohio. The first store in the Big Lots chain was a former Kroger store in the same shopping center. The store later moved to the former Buckeye Mart/Sarco building on Winchester Pike.
A Big Lots in Murrieta, California which was a former Pic 'N' Save
Entrance to a Big Lots in Englewood, Colorado (closed in 2023), which was a former Children's Palace
Big Lots in Raleigh, North Carolina (closed in 2024)
Closing Big Lots in Mansfield, Texas (November 2024)
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Big Lots Wholesale
Big Lots operated a wholesale division which provided merchandise in bulk. It closed its wholesale division at the end of the 2013 fiscal year. The company had conducted wholesale operations through Big Lots Wholesale, Consolidated International, and Wisconsin Toy for more than 34 years.[38]
Big Lots Canada
On July 19, 2011, Big Lots announced that it had purchased Liquidation World Inc., a Canadian closeout retailer with 89 locations for $20 million in cash and the assumption of certain liabilities. This was Big Lots' first retail venture outside of the US. The first Big Lots location in Canada opened in April 2013 in Orillia, Ontario followed by Burlington, Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, and Thunder Bay (all in Ontario as well). Big Lots exited the Canadian marketplace in 2014, citing poor sales.[39]
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References
External links
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