Number of Washington Big Lots locations to close jumps to 18, hundreds nationwide

Discount retailer Big Lots stated in a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in June that it planned to close up to 40 stores. That number has grown to hundreds nationwide, including 18 out of 26 locations in the state of Washington.

The number in Washington rose from the 12 that were reported last month.

As commercial real estate news website CoStar News noted in its reporting Tuesday, Big Lots said in a recent SEC filing the company would be closing as many as 315 stores, up from initial reports. CoStar News is part of CoStar Group, which owns Apartments.com and Homes.com and bills itself as “a leading provider of online real estate marketplaces, information, and analytics in the property markets.” Fast Company linked to the Big Lots filing in its coverage of the closures and can be viewed here.

Previously, the company stated dozens of stores would be closed and also warned there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue in a significant June 13 securities filing. The plan, according to the filing, was to close 35 to 40 stores this year, while opening three. (The company made the disclosures seven days after reporting its first-quarter earnings.) 

But that number has soared about to the hundreds of stores closing, CoStar News explained.

The Big Lots website has been alerting customers of closures on individual store pages. The process of updating the website with store closures appears to have begun July 22.

“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,” President and CEO Bruce Thorn said in a recent statement, according to reports.

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CoStar News reached out to Bill Read of commercial real estate firm Retail Specialists and he told that outlet Big Lots is attempting to quickly stop the negative direction it’s moving in.

“All this reflects that Big Lots is working hard to close underperforming stores,” Read said.

He added the company can’t save itself just by closing stores. That said, “it does help in the short term to focus on the stores that are not losing money.”

Read said previously closing stores “seems like a wise move.”

Big Lots closures in Washington and nationwide

According to an audit Read completed, 291 stores have been tabbed for closure. MassLive, a media outlet based in Central Massachusetts, also completed an audit last week and of the 289 stores it noted were closing a whopping 75 out of 109 locations in California, more than two-thirds of the company’s footprint in the state. In addition, 18 of 34 Arizona stores are scheduled to close and 26 out of Florida’s 106 locations will go dark. Locations in 35 states are being shut down.

The state of Washington, which currently houses 26 stores, will now lose locations in 18 municipalities, including Tacoma, Spokane, Everett, Vancouver and Bellingham.

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The following is a list of the Big Lots locations in the state of Washington that will be closing, according to tallies of the company website on Aug. 7 and July 23:

• 1650 Birchwood Ave., Bellingham
• 14907 4th Ave. SW, Burien
• 17307 SE 272nd St., Covington
• 6727 Evergreen Way, Everett
• 1301 W Meeker St., Kent
• 1515 Marvin Rd. NE, Lacey
• 5401 100th St. SW — Suite 102, Lakewood (new addition to the list)
• 5710 196th St. SW, Lynnwood
• 2815 Capital Mall Dr. SW, Olympia
• 1940 E. 1st St., Port Angeles
• 3399 Bethel Rd. SE, Port Orchard (new addition to the list)
• 120 31st Ave. SE, Puyallup (new addition to the list)
• 14215 SE Petrovitsky Rd., Renton
• 1743 George Washington Way, Richland (new addition to the list)
• 9612 N. Newport Highway, Spokane (new addition to the list)
• 1414 72nd St., Tacoma
• 2100b SE 164th Ave. — Ste. E, Vancouver
• 151 Easy Way, Wenatchee (new addition to the list)

The site still states customers can expect to receive up to 20% off of merchandise at stores that are closing.

Editors’ note: This story originally was published on Tuesday, July 23, 2024. It has been updated and republished multiple times since then.

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.