If you haven’t heard by now, American-based retailer, Big Lots, parent company of (Canada’s) Liquidation World, is closing its doors. Yes, that includes the one here in St. Catharines on Bunting Rd – one of only 5 locations in North America! From what I’ve read, I guess they’ve decided that doing business in Canada is not such a great idea. They will try to focus strictly on the American marketplace.
As quoted:
“We acquired a struggling Canadian business in July 2011 with the intention of revitalizing it and using it as the base for bringing extreme value merchandising and the Big Lots brand to customers in Canada,” the company said in the earnings release. “Over the last two years, we have invested in this business and our team in Canada has worked diligently to turn it around. However, we have not been able to gain the necessary traction in the Canadian marketplace that had originally been anticipated and believe that the significant further capital investments and execution risk associated with continuing to pursue a turnaround would not be in the best interests of our company and shareholders”.
Two years? I don’t think they gave it enough of a chance. However, they are the experts. Needless to say, the employees were very saddened by the unexpected announcement. The disclosure was made in the early part of December 2013. I didn’t get it either. Every time I’ve been there, they were busy.
I was just there today and it was packed – 20% off everything! Big Lots specializes in selling discounted prices on inventories gained through bankruptcies and overstocked warehouse items like furniture, electronics, toys, dry and seasonable goods. I’ve only discovered them back in July of this year and thought it would be a great store to shop at every once in awhile. Now they’re closing.
The company, which bought Liquidation World in 2011, is closing all its 78 stores across the country – five Big Lots locations and 73 Liquidation World stores. This one on Bunting Rd. employs over 50 people.
Big Lots is slated to close its doors through a ‘winding down’ process by early next spring.
Well, it was fun while it lasted! In the meantime, I did some shopping there if only to say, “I got some really great deals at Big Lots today!” one last time.
Have you ever shopped at Big Lots before? If so, what was your experience like and what are your feelings on them closing down?
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