Big Lots is preparing to close all of its remaining stores, including one in the State College area, three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The discount retailer’s location at 503 Benner Pike in College Township is among its more than 900 stores that the company announced on Thursday would begin “going out of business” sales after a planned sale to Nexus Capital Management fell through.
It was not clear when the Centre County store and others might close. Big Lots continues to look to complete an alternative sale of the business by early January, the company wrote in a press release.
“We all have worked extremely hard and have taken every step to complete a going concern sale,” Bruce Thorn, Big Lots president and CEO, said in a statement. While we remain hopeful that we can close an alternative going concern transaction, in order to protect the value of the Big Lots estate, we have made the difficult decision to begin the GOB process.”
In the meantime, Big Lots is continuing to serve customers in-store and online.
The company, which was founded in 1967, cited inflation, declining sales and higher interest rates when it filed for bankruptcy protection in September. In the month leading up to the filing, Big Lots announced the closures of 315 stores and prior to Thursday’s announcement had closed a total of more than 400.
