Big Lots Will Reopen Stores, and That Includes Kentucky

Whiplash hurts, but if it's the figurative kind, that's no problem. We call those blindsides, and they can be fun (on Survivor), or they can be shocking and unwelcome (a tree falls into your living room during a storm).

Big Lots Bankruptcy

It was just a few months ago when we began seeing stories like this one.

Then the mad rush was on to calculate the best time to arrive and scarf up inevitable going-out-of-business bargains. I saw the mad dash in person, and it was impressive.

Why Big Lots Filed for Bankruptcy

Citing a nearly stagnant housing market leading to less interest in the store's home goods and furnishings, a slowdown in consumer spending, and inflation, among other reasons, Big Lots filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. The announcement began with the news that the company would shutter 300 stores, then 400, but by December, the decision was made to close down all 1,300 locations. The end of an era, as it were.

Big Lots Will Reopen

Well, well, well...not so fast. Get your neck brace ready (wink, wink); here comes the whiplash.

Big Lots will reopen several stores after a transaction that saw many Big Lots assets transfer to Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, LLC. It's a company deeply embedded in the retail industry with properties that include a number of companies I've never heard of. But they operate mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast, so that's not surprising.

Where Will Big Lots Reopen?

Kentucky is one of the states where Big Lots will reopen on Thursday, April 10th alongside stores in Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and North Carolina. While the Mount Sterling location is the only one designated in the Commonwealth, thus far, Gordon Brothers has announced that 70 more will open on May 1st. And more openings are coming in June.

Way to go, Big Lots. Eight lives left.