Back to 'old school' days: Big Lots to return under new ownership in May

Keith Gushard, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.

Thu, Apr 3, 2025, 9:47 AM 2 min read

Discount retailer Big Lots will reopen in Meadville and at three other locations in northwestern Pennsylvania in mid-May under new corporate ownership.

Variety Wholesalers Inc. of Henderson, North Carolina, is the new owner of the Big Lots brand, having purchased more than 200 locations from Gordon Brothers Retail in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in February.

Variety Wholesalers owns approximately 400 other retail stores in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions operating under the Roses, Roses Express, Maxway and several other names.

Variety will reopen the 219 Big Lots locations it acquired by June, according to Jeff King, Variety’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“It will be ‘old school’ days for Big Lots — it’s what made them famous — closeouts and great deals on (general) merchandise,” King told The Meadville Tribune.

The revamped Big Lots brand will have more apparel for the family plus home decor, health and beauty products, electronics, home improvement items, toys, seasonal, some food and other things.

“There’ll be soft openings (of the stores) done in waves,” King said.

The first wave — a total of nine stores in Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia — are to open April 10 with a second wave of openings around May 1, King said.

Big Lots’ Downtown Mall location in Meadville, plus its locations in Erie, Franklin and New Castle, are to open around May 15 — the third wave, he added.

The Meadville location began onsite job interviews this week to start recruiting staff.

The typical Big Lots location will have 20 to 25 employees in total — both full- and part-time, King said.

A chain-wide Big Lots grand opening is being planned for this fall.

Big Lots Inc., which was based in Columbus, Ohio, filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2024.

Under its bankruptcy plan, the company was going to sell itself to Nexus Capital Management, a private equity firm, but the deal fell apart. Big Lots said it would closing all its stores but still sought a buyer.

In late December, Big Lots and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners reached a sales agreement to transfer between 200 and 400 Big Lots stores and other assets to Variety Wholesalers. The transferred stores would continue to be operated under the Big Lots name.