Big Lots stores in Santa Maria and Lompoc are among dozens slated for closure in the coming weeks amid the national discount chain’s financial struggles.
Huge signs stating “Closing” and touting discounts now hang at the two locations in the North County.
Santa Barbara County’s only Big Lots stores are at 1417 S. Broadway in a Santa Maria strip mall that includes Foods Co. and JC Penney, plus at 1009 North H St. in Lompoc.
Workers at both stores say they don’t expect to fully close for eight to 10 more weeks, with truck shipments still set to arrive.
The Lompoc store’s closure comes less than two years after Big Lots returned to the city. The store operated at a different location on H Street before closing in 2008.
Big Lots also is shutting the lone store in Atascadero in San Luis Obispo County plus Ventura County stores in Camarillo and Santa Paula, according to the company’s website. Stores in Ventura and Port Hueneme don’t appear to be included among closures.
In total, more than 50 Big Lots stores will close in California, or nearly half of the 109 reported at the end of the 2023 fiscal year. That’s down from 149 in 2021.
Closures also are planned in several other states, including Arizona, Oregon, Colorado and Florida.
“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,” Bruce Thorn, president and chief executive officer, said in a report on first-quarter results.
The firm reported a net loss of $205 million for the first quarter of 2024 ending May 4. Net sales decreased 10% compared with the same period the prior year.
His comments also mentioned “taking aggressive actions” to drive sales growth in late 2024 and into 2025.
Bigs Lots, with its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, boasts 1,390 stores in 48 states, but said in a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the firm expected to open three stores and close 35 to 40, an estimate that appeared lower than reality.
Despite the bleak report, the firm’s website for investors claims it’s “positioned to grow.”
Big Lots stock ended at $1.03 a share Tuesday, down from the $1.09 at opening of trading Monday. The 52-week high was $11.06 while the low was $1.
Older residents in the Santa Maria Valley remember the store when it was known as Pic ‘N’ Save, part of a chain that started in California and operated the Santa Maria location for decades.
In the early 1990s, the name changed to MacFrugal’s Bargains-Closeouts after another firm challenged the company’s right to use Pic ’N’ Save.
In the late 1990s, an Ohio chain, Consolidated Stores Inc. purchased the various MacFrugals stores.
A few years later, with Consolidated’s stores operating under various names, they united under a single national brand known as Big Lots.