Among those closing this fall is the last Big Lots store in Collier County, as the discount retailer plans to close hundreds of stores across the country due to financial losses.
Big Lots recently announced plans to close three of its area stores before the end of the year. Clearance sales have begun at local anchor stores at Gulf Gate Plaza at 2882 Tamiami Trail E. in East Naples, Prado at Spring Creek at 25191 Chamber of Commerce Drive in Bonita Springs and McGregor Pointe at 15271 McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers.
Three other regional stores will continue to operate in the Fort Myers area, said Alicia Schaus, district manager for Big Lots, who contacted Big Lots’ corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, for questions about the closures.
Big Lots Inc. did not respond to emailed questions, but an employee at the East Naples store said the location at U.S. 41 East and Bayshore Drive will close in October and may stay open until November if inventory remains. An employee at Big Lots in Bonita Springs said the store will stay open until September.
Earlier this year, Big Lots had two locations in Collier County, but the only other Naples store closed in late January after operating for 10 years in Park Shore Plaza. Barnes & Noble plans to open there in September after closing its longtime bookstore in the nearby Waterside Shops this summer.
The Big Lots locations in East Naples and Bonita Springs are both anchors of shopping centers owned by Hallandale Beach-based Isram Realty Group. An Isram leasing agent said he has not yet received a date for when Big Lots will vacate the local centers, but their departure will leave 3,300 square feet vacant in Gulf Gate Plaza and 2,600 square feet vacant in Prado at Spring Creek.
“We want to replace her, but I don’t have a replacement for her yet,” said Isram leasing agent Ryan Hayoun. “We’re working on a few options.”
Big Lots in East Naples has operated for more than 15 years in a building that formerly housed one of the area’s first Publix supermarkets. Big Lots in Bonita Springs opened in 2021, replacing Stein Mart, which closed all of its stores in 2020.
The three remaining Big Lots stores in the area will remain open: 4429 Cleveland Ave. in Fort Myers, 4901 Palm Beach Blvd. in Fort Myers and 13970 N. Cleveland Ave. in North Fort Myers. Big Lots has 1,389 stores in the United States, including 106 in Florida.
Big Lots aims to help its customers “live big and save big” and offers affordable home products such as furniture, decor and convenience items. But the chain’s track record hasn’t been promising over the past year, prompting the company to close poorly performing stores. In a July 31 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Big Lots announced its intention to close up to 315 stores, including 26 in Florida.
As Big Lots neared a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, it closed 52 stores last fall. After releasing a disappointing first-quarter report in the summer, the company blamed inflation and soaring costs for the significant losses.
On June 6, Big Lots reported a net loss of $205 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended May 4. Net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 were $1.009 billion, a 10.2% decrease from $1.124 billion in the same period last year.
“While we made significant progress in improving our operations in the first quarter, we missed our revenue targets, primarily due to a continued decline in consumer spending by our core customers, particularly on high-cost consumer goods. We remain focused on navigating the current economic cycle by managing the controllable factors,” said Bruce Thorn, president and CEO of Big Lots, telling shareholders that the company is taking aggressive actions to deliver positive revenue growth in the second half of 2024 and into 2025.
Big Lots Inc., publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the name BIG, will announce its second quarter fiscal 2024 results on September 6 in a conference call and live webcast.
