Big Lots Announces More Store Closures and KY Is on the List

It was my last year at Western Kentucky University, and I remember thinking how it would have been nice to have one of these new discount stores in Bowling Green the ENTIRE time I was there, but no. The first Big Lots I ever visited didn't open until just a few months before I was fitted for a cap and gown.

Still, the concept of large box stores completely devoted to discounts--something brand new at the time--kept me returning even after I stopped being a starving student.

When Big Lots came to my hometown of Owensboro, it was in a strip mall on South Frederica where it stayed, remarkably, until just a year or two ago. That's when it moved out to Towne Square North and took up space in the old Hobby Lobby location.

FUN FACT: That strip mall location on South Frederica was once home to Owensboro's first Walmart. Yes, that tiny location was a Walmart.

And we're back. Well, it looks like Owensboro's Big Lots is safe for now amid all the closures announced by the big discounter, but the bad news HAS reached Kentucky. It's kind of brutal that one of these stores just opened a year ago.

The other two Big Lots stores tabbed for a shutdown are at 1980 Pavilion Road in Lexington and 1321 Second Street in Henderson.

Last month, news teams like this one delivered grim news about the Ohio-based chain's future.

Yet, despite all of the planned closures, Big Lots announced that three new stores WILL open this year.

[SOURCE: Louisville Courier-Journal]

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