The Comeback Begins! - Big Lots' Big Winn

Winn-Dixie #2242 / Big Lots #563 / Big Lots #3344

122 South Nova Road, Ormond Beach, FL - Rivergate Village

Today's post is a presentation of Volusia County retail

     Having toured the most recent Ormond Beach Winn-Dixie over on AFB, it's only fitting we check out the store it replaced too. Also fittingly, the most recent occupant of that former Winn-Dixie building is newsworthy in its own right. While 2025 has been the year of Winn-Dixie to Aldi conversions and Big Lots closures, we won't be looking at this Big Lots only in the past tense - the Ormond Beach Big Lots happened to be one of the 10 Big Lots stores throughout Florida saved by the chain's new owner, Variety Wholesalers. So instead of this post being more doom and gloom to add onto an already depressing year for retail, we'll get to see what this store was like under the ownership of the original Big Lots, while taking a second tour under the reign of "Big Lots 2.0" and getting my take on that situation. As an added bonus, we have Winn-Dixie relics on top of all that stuff too, so this is a post where I'll have a lot to talk about! Let's start to dig into this store and take in everything that's happening here:

     Winn-Dixie first arrived at the intersection of Nova Road and West Granada Blvd. in 1979, the largest of the anchor stores to be featured in the new Rivergate Village Shopping Center. In addition to Winn-Dixie, the supermarket was complimented with junior anchors Gray Drugs and Ben Franklin to complete the center's one-stop shopping assortment. Rivergate Village, along with Publix-anchored The Trails just to the north, were all constructed as part of the boom of new subdivisions in Ormond Beach's inland areas.

     Winn-Dixie remained at Rivergate Village until 1997, when the replacement store we toured over on AFB opened 2 miles east of here in Ormond Beach's original Walmart building. After 18 years in this building, it's no surprise Winn-Dixie was ready to move onto bigger and better things down the road in that new Marketplace Food Pavilion store, a top-of-the-line prototype of the era. The Rivergate store had never seen a single expansion during its entire existence, just a refresh in the 1980's from what I can tell, leaving it in its original 26,000 square foot size. The new store down the road was over double the size of the one it replaced, quite the step up from what was left behind.

     Shortly after Winn-Dixie made its move down the road, the former supermarket space at Rivergate Village became home to the Daytona Beach area's second Big Lots store (following the opening of a Big Lots at the Daytona Mall a few years prior). At 26,000 square feet, this store was quite large for a Big Lots at that time, so from a cramped Winn-Dixie this building became a deluxe Big Lots!

     Stepping inside the first incarnation of our beguiled closeout brand, Winn-Dixie's old vestibule was stocked full of plastic patio chairs, storage bins, and potato chips - an assortment that could only make sense at Big Lots! While Big Lots did replace Winn-Dixie's original sliding doors with a different style of sliding door Big Lots seemed to prefer, the vestibule still feels a lot like Winn-Dixie, particularly because of one very obvious trait Big Lots left behind...

     Much like we saw in my photos of the Avon Park Winn-Lots, Big Lots kept Winn-Dixie's original 1980's striped floor tiles throughout the store here in Ormond Beach too. Unlike the Avon Park store, where the flooring was later replaced following a fire in 2018, the original Winn-Dixie flooring in Ormond Beach lives on into Big Lots 2.0 today! As such, I was quite pleased when I learned this was one of the stores retained by Variety Wholesale, and out of the 10 stores they saved in Florida, this one was probably the most interesting as far as retail relics were concerned. Sadly, we lost a number of other interesting Big Lots stores in the original company's liquidation in early 2025, but I have most of those photographed at least for future coverage, so not all was lost.

     Returning our attention to the Ormond Beach Big Lots, or its flooring at least, we see the front end's tan tiles transition into the produce department's green stripes

     What was the produce department in the Winn-Dixie days had become the health and beauty department in the Big Lots 1.0 days. In addition to health and beauty, the store's frozen foods coolers were also placed in this part of the building, along the front wall in the very first health and beauty aisle.

     While most Big Lots stores managed to place the coolers near the store's grocery aisles (typically facing one of the main perimeter aisles), here the coolers were located in this strange place along the front wall. I can only guess the coolers were placed here for the easier access to power sources in the wall, and it did create the interesting sight of placing the milk and eggs next to the socks and laundry baskets - where else besides Big Lots would you ever see all those products in the same aisle!

     Anyway, as you probably noticed, the store's coolers were empty at the time of my visit. That's because I visited this store just after Big Lots discontinued the sale of refrigerated goods in early 2020, with these coolers sitting idle until they could be removed. The sale (and later discontinuation of ) refrigerated goods was just another one of Big Lots' many attempts at not knowing what kind of a store it should be and what merchandise it should sell, a small component of the larger problem that killed Big Lots 1.0 to begin with.

     Turning around from the coolers, we get a clear view down the store's main right-side aisle, which traversed the general merchandise departments such as health and beauty, pet supplies, toys, and the various other et cetera Big Lots would go back and forth about selling throughout the 2010's and early 2020's. Off to the left were the grocery aisles, which occupied the center of the store (and were one of the only product placement parallels between Big Lots and the Winn-Dixie that was here prior).

     While this store was considered large for a Big Lots in the late 1990's, it was quite cramped (at least so I thought) by the early 2020's. The aisles in the general merchandise part of the store, even the main aisles, were very narrow in here, probably a result of Big Lots doing some rearranging in the late 2000's and early 2010's to fit more furniture on the salesfloor.

     Roaming through Big Lots' aisles, we see Winn-Dixie's green produce stripes had been patched over quite a bit with blue tiles, reminiscent of what we'd find in the remnants from Winn-Dixie's frozen foods department. However, I think the patches of blue in this part of the store were just that, patches, as I'm sure avocado green was a difficult color to find in the tile catalog by the time Big Lots came along to fix the floor.

     Leaving produce, we transition from green with random blue replacement tiles back to tan as we near the back of the store and what would have been the old meat department.

     The back right corner of the store was home to Big Lots' seasonal merchandise, with the patio furniture displays out in the main pad at the time of my visit.

     From the seasonal department, here are a few glimpses back up the right side aisle, showcasing more of Winn-Dixie's original tile pattern.

     It's not a bad thing when the floor is the most interesting part of the tour, is it?

     Nearing the back wall, the salesfloor tan changes to the meat department's bright red, the only fitting color to depict The Beef People's signature item!

     The back right corner, where all this patio furniture was now housed, would have been home to the meat and seafood service counter. The service counter would have been approximately where the back wall is now, just to the left of the stockroom door. Also, while we're back here, I think it's about time I mention one of the more interesting Winn-Dixie relics I stumbled upon during my visit...

     …which is this funky old clock above the stockroom door! Winn-Dixie stores of this era would have had a stockroom entrance in roughly the same place where Big Lots' has theirs today, and if Big Lots only walled over the old service counters and left the stockroom entrance alone, that clock could have survived from Winn-Dixie (even if none of Winn-Dixie's other wall decor did). I'd have to guess that clock is most likely original to 1979, as the design of it fits that era well. I can't find any old Winn-Dixie photos with a similar clock, but I can't imagine Big Lots going through the effort of installing that. Sadly, the clock appears to be permanently stuck on five minutes after nine, as these photos were taken well into the afternoon hours. However, doesn't the old saying state that even a broken clock is right twice a day?

     Looking across the back wall down the very narrow back aisle, the red tile stripe of the meat department now signifies the pillow department.

     Pulling back into one of the aisles, here's a better look at the transition from salesfloor tan to the rare steak red. I'm about 99% sure Big Lots' back wall lines up exactly with the placement of the old meat coolers, meaning the salesfloor is still the same size as it was in the Winn-Dixie days.

      The sacrifices one store makes for an expanded furniture department, here's the very narrow back aisle, which didn't allow for much more than one cart to pass through easily on each side of the towering displays down the middle. Variety Wholesalers actually did a good job of making this store feel larger than it really was, even without moving much around, as their elimination of these giant center aisle displays did wonders on opening up the space.

     Going to the other side of the main back aisle, it's still cramped quarters. To my right along the back wall were the aisles of seasonal merchandise followed by housewares, with the aisles to my left being home to the store's grocery department. And speaking of the grocery department, following the discontinuation of the store's frozen foods selection, what little refrigerated goods Big Lots kept on (milk and eggs, essentially) were relocated to a small endcap cooler, located next to the Snapple drink cooler located just ahead. 

     Having mentioned Snapple, that seems like a drink line you don't hear much about anymore, especially considering how popular that stuff was 20 or so years ago (remember the fun facts they used to print under the caps too?). As such, it seems appropriate that Big Lots was the only place I've seen in ages with a giant cooler promoting Snapple! Once you've grabbed one of your off-trend iced teas from the back cooler, you could work your way into the grocery aisles to browse the assorted unwanted snack flavors and close-dated cookies your heart desired. Even with Big Lots' pivot away from closeouts in the original company's later years, grocery seemed to be the last department where you could still find a number of true closeout deals at Big Lots in recent times (and was one of the only departments I would closely browse during my last few Big Lots runs).

     While the original Big Lots dedicated a lot of floor space to food in its later years (as management considered food one of the chain's focus areas, alongside housewares, furniture, and seasonal merchandise), we'll see in a little bit that Big Lots' new owners tossed much of that thinking aside and brought Big Lots back to its roots, with grocery returning to a few small aisles in the corner to focus more on general merchandise deals.

     Here's a quick look back toward the store's right side wall before we continue our walk toward to the left side of the store, home to the furniture department:

     As we leave grocery, furniture starts to come into view. This is just a taste of the furniture department, which we'll loop back to in just a moment after checking out the housewares corner:

    From the edge of the furniture department, here's a look toward the back of the store and housewares.

     Another set of stockroom doors could be found in the back left corner of the building, with complimentary original Winn-Dixie tile leading the way. While all of Winn-Dixie's original wall signage appears to have been discarded in Big Lots' remodel, I did spot this Big Lots signage relic still lingering in here - the restrooms sign! That restroom sign is from one of Big Lots signage packages of the early-mid 2000's, and survived the removal of all other department signage in this store during the 2010's (a common tactic of Big Lots during that time). While I forgot to get a photo of it during my revisit, this restrooms sign also survived the transition into Big Lots 2.0, which was fun to see as well!

     Approaching the left side wall, the red meat tiles transition into gold. Unfortunately, this gold we stumbled across won't bring us to riches, it just designates the color scheme of Winn-Dixie's former dairy department.

     The gold tiles followed most of the length of the left wall, ending just short of where the old deli/bakery used to be in the front left corner.

     Three aisles of bedding and other household goods occupied the back left corner before the salesfloor transitioned into furniture galore:

     While the rest of the merchandise was crammed into the remaining two-thirds of the building, furniture was spread about in the spacious left third of the store. When we tour this store again after it reopened, we'll notice a big change in merchandise on this side of the building, as Variety Wholesalers believed focusing so much on furniture in its later years was another distraction that led to the demise of the original Big Lots.

     Beyond all the beds, we see some TV stand displays along the front wall. That wall was the original home of the Winn-Dixie deli and bakery, those departments typically combined into the same area in a Winn-Dixie from this era. Based on the tile colors, it appears Big Lots once again just put a wall where the edge of the counters were, sealing off the old deli bakery space. It appeared employee offices were now located where the deli/bakery once was, but I wonder if any of the original orange wall tiles may have survived, as from what I once saw peeking into the backroom of a Publix-turned-Big Lots from the same era, there's a chance!

     In 2018, Big Lots bought the Broyhill name following the company's bankruptcy, using it to create a new higher-end house brand of furniture exclusive to Big Lots. However, Big Lots felt the Broyhill name held additional goodwill outside of furniture, which led Big Lots to begin slapping the Broyhill name on a variety of other houseware items like lamps, bedding, decor, etc., all items that had never been associated with the Broyhill name prior to Big Lots' ownership. According to this article, Big Lots actually saw quite a bit of success with their relaunch of the venerable Broyhill brand, with most business speculators assuming the brand would have an easy time finding a buyer if Big Lots were to totally liquidate due to the name's legacy and the new reputation Big Lots built for the brand. After doing some Googling, it's not clear on what exactly happened to Broyhill after the Big Lots' liquidation ended, with most sources saying that the company's liquidator, Gordon Brothers, retained the brand. However, Value City Furniture (also based out of Columbus, OH, like the original Big Lots) has now started selling Broyhill in their stores, so I don't know if Value City bought the Broyhill name from Gordon Brothers or if Gordon Brothers is licensing the Broyhill name themselves to furniture manufacturers, but it appears the demise of Big Lots was not the end for Broyhill.

     Rounding the corner from furniture, we find the electronics aisle abutting the other side of the former deli department wall. More interestingly, at the end of the aisle to the right of those beach chairs, I spy some white-painted wood paneling - hey, there are more Winn-Dixie relics in here than the floors and that clock!

      Having completed our loop of the store (for the first time), we'll head outside for a moment and take a brief Big Lots break...

     Here's one final look at the Big Lots under its original ownership, as seen from the from the storefront next door, Rivergate's former pharmacy space. We'll divert to the former pharmacy for just a moment before we jump back next door (and 5 years into the future) to tour the Big Lots once again:

     Next door to the former Winn-Dixie was Rivergate's pharmacy anchor, which has been through a number of tenants over the last 40+ years. Upon the center's original construction, the pharmacy space was occupied by Gray Drug, a drug store chain with a strange geographic spread. Headquartered in Ohio, Gray Drug also operated in Florida as well as Maryland before being absorbed into Kroger's SupeRx chain ca. 1985. SupeRx operated here for roughly 3 years before Kroger sold the SupeRx standalone pharmacy business to Rite Aid in 1988. Rite Aid operated at Rivergate until that chain pulled out of Florida in 1995, which ended the run of pharmacies at Rivergate. Shortly after Rite Aid closed, the pharmacy space was retenanted with Bealls Outlet. Bealls Outlet closed by the early 2000's, after which Aaron's Rent-to-Own opened here. Aaron's closed sometime between 2011 and 2014, after which the space sat empty until local farmer's market chain Perrine's Produce opened here in 2016. If Perrine's sounds familiar to you, that's because we toured the flagship Perrine's store in Port Orange a few years back.

     The Port Orange Perrine's has set the baseline for the company's stores going forward, as the company's original location in New Smyrna Beach recently relocated to a larger space that sells a complete selection of groceries, unlike the older smaller stores that sold mostly meat and produce with a little dry grocery on the side, like this store. Had Variety Wholesalers not rescued the Big Lots next door, I have a good feeling Perrine's would have jumped on relocating next door to the larger space, as this location now being the smallest of the company's 3 stores.

     The facade of this store appeared to be mostly unchanged, as the design of the windows was very drugstore like. The original manual doors were replaced by Perrine's, who installed an automatic sliding door, and upon walking through that door you see the scene above.

     Roughly half of the store is dedicated to produce, which is Perrine's bread and butter, the company having begun when founder Arnold "Junior" Perrine started selling watermelons out of the back of his truck in 1986. With the focus on produce and meats, Perrine's stores skew more toward a farmer's market than a true grocery store, considering the heavy emphasis on fresh foods and less on dry grocery. What dry grocery Perrine's does sell (even at the larger stores) skews more toward specialty and organic foods.

     From one of the two or so grocery aisles in here, we see the back of the store, specifically the Amish deli. To the left of the deli was the meat counter, with a small bakery to the right of the deli on the back wall. Even after going through so many tenants and being converted into a grocery store, the back wall still looks like something straight out of a pharmacy with the contours. I don't know for sure if that's the original pharmacy arrangement or not (I'm not familiar with the design of a Gray Drugs), but it looks convincing.

     Amish delis aren't the most common thing in the world in Florida, so it's fun walking around Perrine's and seeing Kunzler cheese for sale alongside shoo fly pie and Kutztown birch beer, bringing a taste of Lancaster to the Sunshine State.

     Unlike the Port Orange Perrine's we toured a few years ago, most of the decor and signage in this Perrine's location appeared to be homemade rather than recycled from a variety of different grocers. However, I did spot one "retail recycle" in here, specifically in the wine department. It's a bit of a subtle spot, but Perrine's must have bought some shelving from an old Publix to furnish this store, as they managed to grab some of Publix's old wine aisle shelf toppers to place against the wall.

     With that, we'll end our quick diversion into Perrine's with one final photo of "Big Lots 1.0". 5 years and one bankruptcy later, we'll jump ahead to May 2025 to see what's changed as we find ourselves in the era of "Big Lots 2.0"...

     Besides a few banners and a new paint job that happened sometime in the 2021-2022 timeframe, I can't say anything dramatic has changed here, at least from the perspective of the parking lot. Even into the era of Big Lots 2.0, the original Big Lots logo, retired in 2001, still graces this building under new ownership (with seemingly no plans to change that out anytime soon). Anyway, as the banner on the right says, "The Comeback Starts Now!", so let's go inside (where all the change has happened) to see what Big Lots is all about now:

     Heading inside, Variety Wholesalers kept and reused all of the fixtures Big Lots left behind, even reusing the original Big Lots' signage and promo toppers too! It was weird seeing all that stuff recycled, and how this was essentially the same store just stocked with totally different merchandise! While the fixtures were the same, Variety Wholesalers totally reimagined the store's layout, as Variety is completely changing what Big Lots is all about...

     In an interview with CEO of Variety Wholesalers Lisa Seigies, Modern Retail described the plans for the future of Big Lots in this great article. Essentially, Variety Wholesalers wants to bring Big Lots back to its roots as a closeout store with a "treasure hunt" appeal. Lisa Seigies states that the original Big Lots lost its way and became more of a furniture store than anything, and that turned away shoppers who would have came to Big Lots looking for other items. Variety Wholesalers wants to recreate Big Lots into what is was back in the chain's early days, as a one-stop "treasure hunt" shop for a broad assortment of merchandise, bringing back many of the departments (like automotive and office supplies) that the original company cut in recent times to focus on furniture and housewares. Unlike Roses, Variety Wholesalers flagship discount brand, Big Lots will be differentiated by being Vareity's "closeout" brand, with a completely different buying staff and target audience.

     While I talked over that last photo, we can also see that the funky old Winn-Dixie tile survived into the latest incarnation of Big Lots, and again, I don't think that will be going anywhere anytime soon either. As part of Variety Wholesalers' reimagining program, seasonal merchandise was relocated to the front right corner of the store, where an aisle was removed to make room for a new seasonal pad where patio furniture was being kept this summer. Moving down the right side of the store from the new seasonal department, we enter automotive and hardware, departments Big Lots reduced to a few shelf sections which have now been expanded back into full or multiple aisles.

     In order to preserve the jobs of the original employees of these stores, Variety Wholesalers expedited the reopening of their acquired Big Lots locations, opening all of them between April and June 2025, anywhere from a month to three months after the original chain ceased operations. Due to the rapid timeframe of the reopenings, these stores were opened at only 50% capacity, with a number of empty spaces throughout the store as Variety Wholesalers waited for merchandise to arrive. Variety Wholesalers has stated multiple times that the stores would be operating at 100% by the fall as their merchandise supplies arrive, stating that their purchase of Big Lots was a last-minute decision and that it takes time for product orders to be produced and acquired, and for shoppers to be patient during this transitional time. As we go through this tour we'll see a number of empty areas throughout the store because of that, and in the above photo, a number of plastic tubs spaced out to fill some of the voids too.

While I accidently cut it off, the old clock over the stockroom is still there.

     As far as merchandise goes, the biggest change you'll see in Big Lots 2.0 is that furniture was reduced from taking up half of the store's salesfloor space to a few sofa and recliner pieces tucked away in the corner, and at this store specifically, located in the original Big Lots' seasonal department. Per Lisa Seigies, Variety Wholesalers will continue to sell a little bit of furniture at Big Lots as deals come in, but it won't be the store's focus anymore. As we'll see in a moment, the former furniture department has been repurposed into something else, something that fits much better with Variety Wholesalers' typical operations.

     When we toured the original Big Lots, the back wall was home to housewares. Following the rebrand, cleaning supplies, pet supplies, and foods have been relocated to the back wall, with Winn-Dixie's former meat department now home to paper products.

     In the aisles with lots of empty space, plenty of signs were hung stating that more merchandise was coming soon. I have seen a number of negative reviews of the new Big Lots stores due to the lack of merchandise, which corporate has said multiple times is only a temporary issue. That being the case, I implore anyone who has been to a Big Lots 2.0 store recently and has been disappointed to give the stores a second chance come October or November once the merchandise arrives to evaluate the new stores from their full potential.

      Even though none of the fixtures were moved, the store's back aisle feels so much more open now with pillow bins down the center of the aisle instead of taller displays from Big Lots 1.0.

     As far as merchandise goes, a lot of the product (at least this early on) is copy and paste from Roses as Variety tries to find stuff to fill the shelves. Once these stores become established I'm sure there will still be some overlap in everyday product between Big Lots and Roses, but I think Variety Wholesale has the right vision to give Big Lots exclusive deals and closeouts to make the Big Lots stores different from its new sibling.

     Looking over the merchandise, it appeared Variety Wholesalers got an interesting closeout deal to stock the shelves with - some of Big Lots old house brands! Real Living was one of Big Lots' housewares brands, and this wasn't the only former Big Lots brand I saw in-stock at Big Lots 2.0 - the furniture department had a number of Just Home wooden furniture pieces for sale too, another Big Lots 1.0 brand.

     While grocery items once occupied much of the center store here, the center aisles became home to housewares in Big Lots 2.0, with grocery being reduced to 2-3 short aisles in the back of the store. That size grocery department is similar to what Big Lots had back in the early 2000's, as grocery was more of an afterthought for Big Lots back then, with that department usually tucked into a corner from what I remember. Perusing the candy aisle at Big Lots 2.0, I picked up a package of these candy buttons - something I haven't seen in years. What also caught my attention was the price tag - for only 100 cents, these were yours! It's not wrong, but that's certainly a different way to say these cost $1!

     The biggest change in Big Lots 2.0 was the addition of a full clothing department to replace the large furniture departments Big Lots used to feature. With clothing being one of the largest and most shopped departments at Roses, it made sense Big Lots 2.0 would end up with an emphasis on clothes. While Big Lots never had quite as large of a clothing department as they have now, they're no stranger to selling clothes. Big Lots had tables of clothes in the early 2000's before discontinuing that product line, but later brought it back in the early 2020's when most stores were given roughly two aisles of assorted clothing items.

     With Big Lots 2.0, clothes now comprise the store's largest department. Unlike Roses, which sells a lot of no-name and off brand clothes, Variety plans to position the Big Lots clothing department with "better" brands bought on closeout, with the CEO saying in relation to this: “Personally, I love the Big Lots brand; I always thought they did a great job as merchants,” Seigies said, adding that the new Big Lots mantra will be “brands for less,” bringing in products from Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Andrew Marc, priced competitively with other off-price retailers. “That makes the store more interesting and sets it apart from Roses.” In Big Lots early days, the company's slogan was "Brand Names. Closeout Prices.", with this new vision taking Big Lots back to those roots.

     An example of how Big Lots was being positioned to sell "better" brands when compared to Roses, there was a display of Joe Boxer sleep pants for sale in the clothing department. Originally a department store brand that signed with Kmart to be its exclusive retailer in 2001, the brand now seems to make its rounds at the Ross and TJMaxx type stores these days following the demise of Sears and Kmart, and is still sold at Macy's, the store that brought the brand into the limelight in the 1990's. Variety Wholesalers seems to be going after the Ross and TJMaxx-type shopper with their new clothing departments, so bringing in this type of merchandise makes sense.

     And as part of AFB's collection of famous brands selling totally random products, it appears Joe Boxer expanded out of the clothing realm and branched into selling wet wipes, facial cleansing wipes per the package description. When I first spotted these, I thought these wipes were for cleaning a totally different part of the body (considering it was underwear that launched Joe Boxer to fame), but the fact they're facial wipes just makes them even more random I suppose!

     Even with much of the store being stocked below capacity this early into the store's new life, the clothing department was decently stocked considering the situation. The clothing department was (roughly) laid out with mens' clothing toward the back of the store, kids in the middle, and womens' toward the front. I guess since Variety Wholesalers sells a lot of clothes, they had plenty on hand to stock the Big Lots stores with while they were waiting for the rest of the hard goods to arrive.

     I can't believe we're almost at the end of this post, and I've yet to mention the old Winn-Dixie round air diffusers! (Guess that's what happens when I spend too much time focusing on the floor!) Much like how those diffusers are closely associated with old Kmart stores, Winn-Dixie used very similar ones in their 1970's and 1980's stores, and the ones seen in here are very much a Winn-Dixie relic.

     While the clothes were of ample supply, the health and beauty department that abutted the main aisle were pretty sparse, with just a few bottles of shampoo for sale this early on. Other than this May 2025 visit of mine, I've yet to head back to this (or any other) Big Lots 2.0 store yet to check on the merchandise situation or see if anything else has changed, but I'm sure I'll end up near one before long for another look.

   To "closeout" our interior tour, the only major modification Variety Wholesalers made to this building was constructing a tiny fitting room in the corner between the new clothing department and the front end, abutting the partition wall that closed off Winn-Dixie's old deli/bakery space. The sign attached to the door was created by Variety Wholesalers, and mimics the design style Big Lots 1.0 used quite well (almost to the point where someone could have been convinced this fitting room was always here).

     For fun, I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of one my my receipts from the original Ormond Beach Big Lots with the receipt from my visit to the new store. Just to show how much Variety Wholesalers reused from the original Big Lots, the register tape was the exact same one from the original chain, as the back still advertised the old Big Lots rewards program that went down with the original company (and was not revived by Variety Wholesalers, who doesn't operate rewards programs of any kind). Whatever the old Big Lots left behind was reused by Variety Wholesalers, from the shopping carts to the signs to the fixtures and even the register tape! Even the registers themselves were the same from Big Lots (which isn't surprising, since Big Lots installed new registers chainwide only 2-3 years ago), although Variety Wholesalers installed new software on each register to match what is used at Variety's other brands. If the receipt is anything to go by, Big Lots' old slogan "Live Big Save Lots" is sticking around, as well as the famous exclamation point.

     In summary, I think Variety Wholesalers has the correct vision for the future of Big Lots, bringing the chain back to its roots as a closeout store with a treasure hunt appeal. It was that format that made Big Lots a national brand, and straying off into furniture sales distracted the original Big Lots and led them down the path of no return. While the new Big Lots will very much have influences from Roses and Variety Wholesalers' other brands (such as the new emphasis on clothes), if Variety can successfully bring back the treasure hunt appeal, I think Big Lots could be one of the rare success stories of a bankrupt retail brand coming back to life, even if it will be with a much smaller, more Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic focused footprint than before. Even with the stores running on limited capacity and Variety scrambling to find merchandise to fill the stores with, corporate claims the new stores are a hit, and is toying with the concept of opening more Big Lots stores. The first new Big Lots that wasn't a reopening of a store from the old chain will be opening this fall in Ocala, following the closure and conversion of an existing Roses to Big Lots. There's a chance additional Roses stores will convert to Big Lots as well if corporate is experimenting with that, and in addition, Variety Wholesalers has hinted at taking over more original Big Lots stores that have yet to find a buyer following the original chain's demise. I'll have to stop by one of the new Big Lots stores to see how things are going, but hopefully the new ownership can fix the problems the original management caused and Big Lots can move forward as a healthier, reborn brand. Now if only the original tenant of this building can do the same too!

      Anyway, that's all for today, and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to check out my coverage of the Winn-Dixie that replaced this store over on AFB.

So until the next post,

AFB