A national retailer that has fallen on hard times announced that all of its stores are conducting going Out of Business sales.
Big Lots made the announcement Thursday, according to Fox Business.
The company announced that it no longer expected plans to sell Big Lots to Nexus Capital Management to actually reach fruition.
The company began Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in September, saying that the sale to Nexus offered the best hope of keeping stores open.
The embattled discount retail chain, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, said it was unable to reach a deal to sell itself. https://t.co/Tdh81ZllPR
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) December 20, 2024
Big Lots began the year with approximately 1,400 stores in the U.S. but has been closing them throughout the year, according to CNN.
In the second quarter, Big Lots lost $238.46 million on sales of $1.05 billion, which represented an 8 percent drop over the same period last year, Fox Business reported.
A news release from the company said it still hoped to complete a sale of the company in early January.
Is there a Big Lots near you?
The release said that the Going out of Business sales taking place will not preclude the company being sold.
“We all have worked extremely hard and have taken every step to complete a going concern sale,” Big Lots President and CEO Bruce Thorn said.
“While we remain hopeful that we can close an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the GOB process,” he said.
A nation where Big Lots vanishes overnight is a nation at a crossroads. This isn’t just the death of a retailer, it’s the alarm bell of an economy stretched too thin, where the foundations we once took for granted are crumbling beneath us. How many more signs do we need before we…
— Chris Fernandez (@FernOnX) December 19, 2024
“The Company is continuing to serve customers in-store and online, and will provide updates as available,” the release said.
A report from the firm Coresight Research, a consumer insights group, said it tracked 49 retail bankruptcies in the U.S. in 2024, according to NBC.
The company said it had tracked 25 retail bankruptcies in 2023.
Coresight said there were more than 7,300 store closings this year, and said Family Dollar closed 718 stores, CVS, shuttered 586 stores, and Big Lots closed 580 stores.
Coresight data listed 4,627 store closings through this point in 2023.
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