Big Lots closure
For the second time in less than a year, retailer Big Lots Stores Inc. is closing one of its Las Vegas stores.
An inventory-clearance sale has been under way at the latest store targeted for closure at 230 S. Decatur Blvd.
The Big Lots there is in the Target-anchored Decatur Crossing Center strip mall on Meadows Lane and Decatur Boulevard, near U.S. 95.
After the closure, Big Lots will have eight stores in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.
Employees at the Decatur Crossing store confirmed it’s closing by mid-June, but the company hasn’t disclosed an official closing date. Messages for comment on the closure were placed with a local manager and with an executive at company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
The planned closure follows the closure within the past year of another Big Lots at 3430 E. Tropicana Ave., at Pecos Road.
A Big Dollar Stores outlet will soon open at the Tropicana Avenue location, according to Big Dollar Stores.
The local Big Lots closures aren’t surprising given disclosures by Big Lots that it regularly opens and closes stores based on individual lease situations. In the United States, it opened 92 stores and closed 39 last year, the company said in a regulatory filing.
This year, it plans to open 90 stores and close 45.
The Las Vegas closures come as the local retail commercial real estate vacancy rate has been stuck at elevated 10 percent-plus levels for three years thanks to overbuilding and the recession.
Big Lots specializes in selling closeout merchandise at a discount and says that with its network of more than 1,500 stores around the country and in Canada, it can quickly acquire and re-sell warehouse-size batches of goods.