Big Lots is closing because enough of their customers finally realized that if they wanted to buy junk they could do better at a Salvation Army Thrift Store.
> Big Lots is closing because enough of their customers
> finally realized that if they wanted to buy junk they
> could do better at a Salvation Army Thrift Store.
Well, sure, but not new-in-box junk.
The BigLots business plan relies on a steady flow of
liquidated, overstocked, closeout and otherwise
impaired(*) products.
This has fundamental problems.
1. Its continued success requires lots of other
business to continue to screw up.
2. It assumes that these products won't find some
other way to reach market (many retailers closing
stores liquidate in place, for example).
* Impaired - I've seen clear evidence that many items
BL sells are there due to packaging or even branding
that needed changing that was uneconomical. I bought
a couple of cases of a fine breakfast cereal that had
an obvious trademark conflict with another company.
This sort of thing doesn't happen often enough to build
a business around.