Big Lots! termination big blow to Sallisaw

Big Lots! needs to update its big orange, white and black sign at 1900 E. Cherokee Avenue in Sallisaw.

The sign proudly announces: Coming soon 2024.

Turns out it will not be coming to Sallisaw after all.

A casualty of last week’s announcement that Big Lots! plans to close as many as 40 of its almost 1,400 stores nationwide, the Sallisaw store joins other projects that have been shelved in the wake of the discount retailers’ continuing financial crisis.

The bad news Sallisaw officials received was, to be sure, a disappointment.

“That’s pretty tough, so we’ll see what we can recruit to go in there,” George Bormann, director of economic development for the city, said in relating the message he received. “In the meantime, they are terminating.”

The news was particularly frustrating because an hour earlier, Bormann had said despite the national news, the Sallisaw location was still on.

“My last contact with Rhino Investments Group, the company that has that, their communications with Big Lots! was that they had three projects scheduled, and they were shutting down two of them, but Sallisaw was not one of them. It’s still moving forward,” Bormann said.

“The last contact that our building development crew had with Big Lots! was that they were still planning on starting their project the second week of July into August.

“We sure want them [in Sallisaw]. I know that end of town desperately needs it. We wanna help facilitate that any way we can,” Bormann said, noting that Rhino Investments had been very forthcoming about the project in the past, and had further fostered optimism with the Big Lots! sign emblazoned with ‘coming soon 2024.’

“As far as I know, everything’s still on board.”

But an hour later, Bormann received the dreaded news that the Sallisaw store would not be opening in the Eastgate Shopping Center.

The unfinished interior of the property at 1900 E. Cherokee Avenue in the Eastgate Shopping Center.

Battling a worsening financial prospect and a tough consumer market, Big Lots! had notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would close up to 40 stores this year. The company had 1,425 stores to start 2023, a number that had dipped to 1,392 by the start of 2024.

Like many other retailers, Big Lots! has been impacted with declining sales, rising prices and a downturn in consumer spending since the 2020 pandemic. Sales dipped by more than 10% from 2023 to 2024, which was a loss of about $114.5 million.

By early 2024, Big Lots! was facing debt of almost $575 million, and acknowledged that the company’s future is bleak.

In the event Big Lots! cannot recover and ends up filing for bankruptcy protection, it will join other familiar retailers that have done so since the pandemic, including:

• Red Lobster (87 restaurants in 27 states)

• Rite Aid (at one time, 2,000 stores in 17 states)

• Bed Bath & Beyond (360 Bed Bath & Beyond locations and 120 Buy Buy Baby storefronts)

• Christmas Tree Shops (70 stores in 20 states).

In addition, other retailers that have cut “underperforming” locations since the pandemic include Disney Stores, Hooters, JCPenney, Kmart, Sears and Walgreens.