Just over two years since its grand opening, the Big Lots location at 1840 Countryside Dr. in Turlock will soon cease operations.
The Turlock Big Lots is one of the 149 from across the nation, including 54 in California, that will close before the end of a year. A final closing date for the Turlock store has not been set as of Friday morning.
Big Lots has not released a statement regarding the closures or a full list of all locations expected to close, but individual stores have begun marketing going-out-of-business sales on their websites and hanging banners outside. A large, yellow banner stating “CLOSING” in bold, black text was hung outside of the Turlock store on Tuesday. There are also signs on the windows and on racks outside stating that there is currently a storewide sale of up to 20% off and that there will be “nothing held back.” Discounts are expected to gradually increase.
The mass closures come after the Ohio-based discount retailer reported significant Q1 losses in early June. Big Lots, Inc. reported a net loss of $205 million, or $6.99 per share, for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 that ended on May 4. The figures are a result of net sales totaling just $1.009 billion, a 10.2% decrease compared to $1.124 billion for the same period last year.
The company cited inflation, the cost of goods, competitors, a failure to successfully execute strategic initiatives, the lack of availability of brand name closeout merchandise, trade restrictions and freight costs as some of the reasons for the recent financial struggles.
“While we made substantial progress on improving our business operations in Q1, we missed our sales goals due largely to a continued pullback in consumer spending by our core customers, particularly in high ticket discretionary items,” said President and CEO Bruce Thorn in the June report.
Big Lots originally began operating in Turlock at 3101 Geer Rd. within the Valley View Plaza across from Stanislaus State. After several years there, they moved to their current location, a space that formerly housed JCPenney, in May of 2022. The space measures 33,796 square feet of shopping and operational space, which was a significant increase from the Geer Road space.
Last week, it was announced that the space on Geer Road will soon be taken over by Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, the second in the city.
