The financially troubled discount retailer Big Lots Stores Inc. (NYSE:BIG) is planning to close between 35 to 40 stores this year.
Chain Store Age reports the Columbus, Ohio-headquartered company operates more than 1,300 stores. However, the company has experienced losses and used cash in operating activities during 2022, 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company stated it “expects to experience further operating losses and expects to experience difficulty remaining in compliance with such covenants.”
Big Lots’ sales were down 10.2% year-over-year to $1 billion in its first quarter, with a 9.9% decrease in comparable sales. The company blamed an absence of shoppers for its problems.
“While we made substantial progress on improving our business operations in Q1, we missed our sales goals due largely to a continued pullback consumer spending by our core customers, particularly in high ticket discretionary items,” said CEO Bruce Thorn in the company’s earnings release, adding the company’s efforts to strengthen its liquidity “included aggressive efforts to manage opex, capex and inventory, and the execution of a new $200 million term loan facility, which provides us with significant additional financial flexibility.”
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It’s always been a discount retailer, then it wasn’t. I stopped shopping there two years ago.
Well, that’s what happens when you substantially increase prices. That’s why I don’t shop there anymore.
“ The company blamed an absence of shoppers for its problems.” Wow how many overpaid management types & meetings did that take to figure out?
They upped the prices too high and some of the items are close, if not over, the expiration date. Not the best shopping experience anymore. Lower the prices and I’ll be back.
All true with the 4 above comments, and I stopped shopping there a couple of yrs. ago.