The last Big Lots store in Collier County is among those closing this fall as the discount retailer plans to shutter hundreds of locations nationwide because of financial losses.
Big Lots recently announced plans to close three of its stores in the area before the end of the year. Closing sales have begun at local anchor stores in Gulf Gate Plaza at 2882 Tamiami Trail E. in East Naples; in Prado at Spring Creek at 25191 Chamber of Commerce Drive in Bonita Springs; and in McGregor Pointe at 15271 McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers.
Three other regional stores will remain operating in the Fort Myers area, said Big Lots district manager Alicia Schaus, who referred questions about the closings to Big Lots’ corporate office in Columbus, Ohio.
Big Lots Inc. did not respond to emailed questions, but an employee at the East Naples store said that location at U.S. 41 East and Bayshore Drive would close in October and possibly extend its operation until November if it still had inventory available. An employee at Big Lots in Bonita Springs said that store would be open through September.
At the beginning of the year, Big Lots had two locations in Collier County, but the only other store in Naples 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 this summer in the nearby Waterside Shops.
The Big Lots locations in East Naples and Bonita Springs are both anchors of shopping centers owned by Isram Realty Group, based in Hallandale Beach. An Isram leasing agent said he has not received a date for when Big Lots plans to vacate the local centers, but their departures will leave vacant spaces of 36,277 square feet in Gulf Gate Plaza and 28,000 square feet in Prado at Spring Creek.
“We are looking to replace them, but I don’t have a replacement for them 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 space that formerly was home to one of the first Publix supermarkets in the area. The Big Lots in Bonita Springs opened in 2021 to replace Stein Mart, which closed all its stores in 2020.
The three remaining Big Lots stores in the area will remain open at 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 locations in the United States, including 106 in Florida.
With a company mission to help customers “live big and save lots,” Big Lots offers bargains on home products such as furniture, décor and essential goods. But the chain’s bottom line has not been promising during the past year, prompting the company to close underperforming stores. In a July 31 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Big Lots reported its intention to close up to 315 stores, including 26 in Florida.
Nearing a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Big Lots closed 52 stores last fall. After a disappointing first-quarter report was released this summer, the company blamed inflation and high-rising costs for contributing to significant losses.
On June 6, Big Lots reported a net loss of $205 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 that ended May 4. Net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 totaled $1.009 billion, a 10.2% decrease compared to $1.124 billion for the same period last year.
“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. We remain focused on managing through the current economic cycle by controlling the controllables,” said Big Lots president and CEO Bruce Thorn, telling shareholders that the company is taking aggressive actions to drive positive sales growth in the latter part of 2024 and into 2025.
Publicly traded as BIG on the New York Stock Exchange, Big Lots Inc. will report its results for the second quarter of fiscal 2024 on Sept. 6 via a conference call and live webcast.
