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Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 Mar 2009 01:04
by lvkewlkid
lvkewlkid wrote:I know that in the Las Vegas area, we have some that started out as another store, but we also have a few that started out as new-builds...

The ones on South Eastern/Windmill and Rampart/Lake Mead are both former Raley's/Albertsons since they are both across the street from a Smiths...The one on Boulder Hwy, I also believe is a former Albertsons/Raley's, but I am unsure of that...

There is a thread that I started about the Big Lots on East Sahara, many people had conflicting views over what it had been before, some have said Checker Auto Parts, while others I believe said it was a former supermarket (Smiths?)...

Pecos/Tropicana, Spring Mountain/Decatur, Nellis/Stewart, and Decatur/Meadows are all in what seems to have started off as other stores, but I don't know what...I know all of them or most were MacFrugal's...

Big Lots on Craig is a new build as is the one on East Warm Springs...
I just passed by the one at Nellis/Stewart, it has closed, very strange, i've never seen a closed Big Lots, who will take over the space? Also, it is next to a Peter Piper Pizza and the way the building is subdivided, it looks like it was once one whole building and something else before it became a Peter Piper Pizza and Big Lots...

Also the one on Boulder, the furniture section has now been converted into a taco shop, the Big Lots is still open, they only closed down the furniture section...

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 Mar 2009 11:13
by Jeff
We had a few Big Lots close a few years ago down here.

One I remember is Rosemead. It was a very tiny store at Garvey and Rosemead. Its so small, its a laundromat today. It basically had a front enterance, and four aisles in the store.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 Mar 2009 14:02
by TenPoundHammer
lvkewlkid wrote:I just passed by the one at Nellis/Stewart, it has closed, very strange, i've never seen a closed Big Lots, who will take over the space?
Big Lots closing isn't unusual. They had a store in Caro, Michigan that lasted a whole year in a former Farmer Jack. I think it's still vacant. (Caro also has the distinction of being one of the only towns in Michigan that has a Wal-Mart but never had a Kmart.)

Seriously, though, I think that Big Lots could really stand to clean up many of its stores. Several of them, such as Bay City, are small, cramped, dirty stores, while newer locations such as Alpena are huge, bright, and clean.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 23 Mar 2009 02:01
by marshd1000
The Big Lots store in Burien, WA used to be a Pic n Save. However the building that it is in used to be a House of Values store that was closed when PayLess Drugs bought the Gov Mart Bazar just a block away. But originally the Burien House of Values was divded into two stores. One was a fabric store and the other half was the second store in the now defunct Sportswest chain. Sportswest became Big 5 and the fabric store became Pic n Save before becoming Big Lots.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 28 Mar 2009 13:30
by tkaye
As for Big Lots closing stores, they pulled out of all three stores they were operating on the west side of Puget Sound (Bremerton, Port Orchard, and Sequim) in late 2006. Since they were the only stores in the region that weren't along the I-5 corridor, I would guess that the closures were part of an effort to cut down on distribution costs. (I'm surprised they still have a store all by itself up in Bellingham.)

Both the Bremerton and Port Orchard stores were in former Pay 'n' Save (and later, PayLess) locations that were closed shortly after Rite Aid acquired them. The Bremerton store opened as a Pic 'n Save in 1999, a few years before the Port Orchard store. Once Big Lots left, the spaces were snapped up by tenants that were even more downscale. LOI Distribution, operator of the seemingly nameless "Only $1.00 Dollar Store" locations that are all over Washington State, moved in to the Bremerton site and the Seattle Goodwill opened a thrift store in the Port Orchard vacancy. I'm not sure what took over the former Sequim store.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 19 May 2009 02:28
by BOTRAIN
There are 4 local Big Lots stores in central Pennsylvania.

The store in Clearfield, PA is placed into a former Quality Farm & Fleet location. It was placed in one half of the building while the other half is currently occupied by Tractor Supply.

The store in DuBois, PA is in a former Ames location as an anchor to the DuBois mall. The mall itself and Big Lots do quite well and this is one of the larger Big Lots stores I've seen.

The store in Altoona, PA is in a former BiLo Foods grocery store buidling. It still has the trademark BiLo tinted glass arch entrance intact.

The store in State College, PA is the most interesting of all, though. It has been there since I can remember. The outdoor signage is still the old big block letter "BIG LOTS" and the store has a very 1980's feel to it. It was the first Big Lots store in the area as all the others have appeared within the past 10 years. The signage is similar to this store:

Image

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 May 2009 22:52
by Daniel
In Rocky River, Oh there's a Big Lots in an old Office Depot, and over in Cleveland there's one in part of an old Zayre (the other half is used by regional discounter Marc's). Another now-closed Big Lots was in Cleveland in a former Uncle Bill's store.

In Fresno, CA there's the often photographed store in an old Marina Safeway, and over in Clovis there's a store in a former Alpha Beta. (Both of these stores date back to the chain's "Pic-N-Save" days)

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 21 Oct 2009 20:35
by TenPoundHammer
TenPoundHammer wrote:
wnetmacman wrote:Others I have seen:The very first Big Lots I ever went to was a former 3D Discount Center in Mattoon, IL which itself had been a Kroger Family Center.
I wonder if this is related to the 3D Discount Center that bought a couple former Yankee/Zody's stores in Michigan? I know the Yankee stores in Essexville, Saginaw, and Port Huron all became 3D after a while.
Update: Yes it was. This was the 3D Discount chain that Danner's 5&10 owned. Saginaw became Tradeway (any idea what this was?), then Hills for about a year, and it's now Kmart. Port Huron is now a vacant Farmer Jack, and Essexville became Meijer Square (short-lived Meijer concept that was just a discount store, no grocery) and is now a relocated Kroger. Tying back into the main subject of this thread, the original Kroger in this strip center was a 1970s store which was not remodeled at all after it was split between a Big Lots an Aco Hardware:

http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

Big Lots closed a few years ago, and for about a year it partially became a Dollar General. It's now vacant again.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 12:28
by Dean
Noticed the former Pico Rivera CA site on Beverly Boulevard.

The site was demolished...yet, the sign is still on the street...painted over in black paint.

I recall this had been Pic-N-Save. Believe it had been Smith's Food King prior.

Jeff?!

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 13:41
by Jeff
Dean wrote:Noticed the former Pico Rivera CA site on Beverly Boulevard.

The site was demolished...yet, the sign is still on the street...painted over in black paint.

I recall this had been Pic-N-Save. Believe it had been Smith's Food King prior.

Jeff?!
Yep. It was closed and demolished for a new shopping center a few years ago, then the economy tanked.

It was Smiths FK, then PNS, then Big Lots, and now a big lot.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 21 Aug 2010 15:20
by Dean
Jeff wrote:
Dean wrote:Noticed the former Pico Rivera CA site on Beverly Boulevard.

The site was demolished...yet, the sign is still on the street...painted over in black paint.

I recall this had been Pic-N-Save. Believe it had been Smith's Food King prior.

Jeff?!
Yep. It was closed and demolished for a new shopping center a few years ago, then the economy tanked.

It was Smiths FK, then PNS, then Big Lots, and now a big lot.
thanks!

..."and now a big lot". Ha!

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 27 Dec 2010 01:30
by Gary21228
The Hagerstown, MD store is in part of a former Two Guys which has been subdivided. They just opened a store in Westview Shopping Center in Baltimore in space that was a former multiplex theatre.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 May 2013 21:22
by 47of74
The one in Dubuque, Iowa started out life as an Eagle's Supermarket up until the chain pretty much folded in the fall of 2003. It sat vacant for about a year then was turned in to a Big Lots. Big Lots was there for a few years then they closed that location. The building was divided into two stores. Fareway took over most of the building, taking it back to its grocery roots. The remaining quarter became a Family Dollar.

There was a Big Lots in Cedar Rapids too, it had been in the Econofoods next to Westdale Mall. That store closed too, I think the building was eventually demolished.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 00:32
by Ephrata1966
I'm not sure about this, but to answer someone else's question from long ago, I doubt any Centennial A&Ps ended up as Big Lots. Most of them were just a little bit too small. Most A&P buildings from the 70's would be big enough though, just about the perfect size. There were some Centennials like the ones in Willingboro NJ and Mercerville NJ (Trenton) that were expanded when they became Super Fresh in the 80's though, and these would be the right size for Big Lots. Surprisingly despite the money spent on expanding and retooling them as Super Fresh, both of these closed around 1995. It's a shame because both of them were really just as modern (in the 80's) as most other supermarkets of the time, but I guess Super Fresh wanted to be considered "upscale" in the 90's and make customers forget about their past as Plain Jane A&P stores.

Re: Big Lots

Posted: 22 Jun 2013 08:14
by wnetmacman
Ephrata1966 wrote:I'm not sure about this, but to answer someone else's question from long ago, I doubt any Centennial A&Ps ended up as Big Lots. Most of them were just a little bit too small. Most A&P buildings from the 70's would be big enough though, just about the perfect size.
Not entirely true. There is (and has been for some time) a Centennial on Mansfield Road in Shreveport, LA that houses a Big Lots. Now to be fair, it was added to on one side, making it somewhat larger, but not too much. You can see it on Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/?ll=32.410065,-9 ... g=270&z=20

There are several others not in Centennial stores, but that one definitely sticks out.