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The story
Early years
The first closeout store, Odd Lots, opened in 1982 in Columbus. Due to a naming conflict with Revco’s Odd Lot Trading Co., the company rebranded its stores outside of Ohio as Big & Small Lots, later consolidating all stores under the Big Lots name.
Consolidated Stores was also an investor in the DeLorean Motor Company and took possession of unsold vehicles after the automaker’s 1982 bankruptcy. The company went public in 1985 on the American Stock Exchange and switched to the New York Stock Exchange in 1986 under the symbol CNS.
During the 1990s, Consolidated acquired Toy Liquidators (1994) and KB Toys (1996), which it later sold to Bain Capital in 2000. In 1998, it purchased MacFrugals (Pic ‘N’ Save) for $995 million in stock. The company was renamed Big Lots, Inc. in 2001, changing its ticker symbol to BLI, and later to BIG in 2006. In 2005, it closed 170 stores, including all standalone furniture locations.
Big Lots Wholesale
Big Lots operated a wholesale division for over 34 years through Big Lots Wholesale, Consolidated International, and Wisconsin Toy. The division, which sold merchandise in bulk, was closed at the end of fiscal year 2013.
Big Lots Canada
In July 2011, Big Lots acquired Canadian closeout retailer Liquidation World Inc. for $20 million, marking its first expansion outside the United States. The first Canadian store opened in April 2013, with additional locations in Ontario. The company exited Canada in 2014 due to poor sales.
From Wikipedia’s article on Big Lots, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7