Latest news with #BigLots
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Big Lots! to Complete Reopening Phase June 5, Eyes Further Growth Due to Overwhelming Customer Support
HENDERSON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2025-- Big Lots!, a leading discount retailer known for its treasure hunt shopping experience, closeouts, and unbeatable bargains, announces the fourth and final wave of its store reopenings, with 78 additional locations set to welcome customers on June 5, 2025. These stores are located in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. This will bring the total number of reopened Big Lots! stores to 219, marking a significant milestone in the brand's resurgence under new ownership, Variety Wholesalers. The phased reopening strategy that began in April has been met with an overwhelmingly positive customer response. Returning loyal customers and new shoppers alike have expressed enthusiasm for the wide array of branded favorites and incredible bargains across all categories, including apparel and home decor. The renewed Big Lots! experience, emphasizing exceptional value and a compelling product mix, has clearly resonated with communities. 'The connection with the communities we serve, and the positive customer feedback has been more than we could have imagined,' said Lisa Seigies, President and CEO of Variety Wholesalers. 'This enthusiastic response reinforces our belief that taking Big Lots! back to the roots of what made it a huge success resonates with our customers. Providing great value will always be our core mission.' The success of the series of reopenings has spurred Variety Wholesalers to explore options for acquiring additional Big Lots! locations, further signaling their commitment to the brand's long-term growth and expansion. These successful reopenings are setting the stage for a grand opening celebration this fall. Big Lots! plans to host a grand reopening event across all 219 store locations, featuring exciting deals at unbelievable values to welcome local communities back and to thank them for their unwavering support. Details of the grand reopening event will be announced in the coming months. A full list of store locations can be found by visiting About Variety Wholesalers, Inc. Variety Wholesalers, Inc. is a leading discount retailer, known for offering a wide range of high-quality, brand-name, and closeout merchandise with unbeatable deals, including apparel, home decor, health and beauty items, toys, and more. Operating more than 600 stores across 18 states, its retail brands include Big Lots!, Roses and Roses Express. View source version on CONTACT: Media Contact: Jeff King [email protected] KEYWORD: NORTH CAROLINA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: OTHER CONSUMER DISCOUNT/VARIETY PARENTING DEPARTMENT STORES SENIORS HOME GOODS FAMILY CONSUMER RETAIL SOURCE: Variety Wholesalers, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/30/2025 09:00 AM/DISC: 05/30/2025 08:58 AM
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Over 100 shoppers line up for discount store grand opening at former Big Lots location
A new discount retailer moved into an old Big Lots building and hosted over 150 shoppers for its grand opening Thursday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] News Center 7's Amber Jenkins spoke with shoppers at the grand opening. Hear more about how they hope the new business will bring new life to the city LIVE on News Center 7 at 5:30. TRENDING STORIES: Area police chief placed on paid leave pending misconduct investigation 2 men dead after motorcycle goes airborne, hits fence near Dayton International Airport 1 officer in critical condition, another stable after shooting in Ohio; Suspect on the run Forman Mills opened its doors at 5009 Salem Avenue to the Trotwood community within 90 days of the former Big Lots location closing. The grand opening Wednesday hosted eager shoppers awaiting the opportunity to roam the 25,000 square feet of discount clothes and jewelry. Desiree Atkins works for Forman Mills' marketing department and said the first person was in line at 6:30 a.m. Trotwood shopper Debra Allen said she was one of the 150 who waited. 'The line was all the way back to Salem Ave. People were wanting to get inside the store,' Allen said. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
45,000 Minnesotans are at risk of losing SNAP benefits
A 'SNAP welcomed here' sign is seen at the entrance to a Big Lots store in Portland, Oregon. (Getty Images) Roughly 45,000 Minnesotans would be at risk of losing all of their federal food assistance, and tens of thousands more could lose some of that assistance under cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) approved by Republicans in the U.S. House. The bill still needs to pass the Senate and win the signature of President Donald Trump to become law. All told, 11 million people nationwide would be at risk of losing some food aid under the $230 billion in cuts approved by House Republicans, according to a recent estimate by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank. That money would be used instead to partially fund tax cuts that mostly benefit the rich. 'One of the harshest cuts would take food assistance away from people — including, for the first time ever, parents with children over the age of 6 and adults aged 55 to 64 — who don't meet a red-tape-laden and ineffective work requirement,' the CBPP writes. Studies have consistently shown that those work requirements do not actually boost employment. Minnesota has relatively low SNAP participation compared to other states, so the cuts won't bite as sharply here as they would elsewhere. They'd be distributed more or less evenly across the state's eight congressional districts, with between 4,000 and 6,000 people in each district at risk of losing benefits completely. Districts in more impoverished regions of the country, like Appalachia, the deep South, and parts of the Southwest, would see tens of thousands of adult residents at risk of a total loss of benefits. The severity of the final cuts will depend in part on whether affected states can fill gaps with state funding. Even a relatively small funding gap in Minnesota could wreak havoc on the state's budget, which lawmakers are currently working to finalize. Roughly 440,000 Minnesotans currently rely on SNAP, according to data from the Department of Children, Youth and Families, including 50,000 children under the age of 6. 'Food insecurity is directly linked to higher rates of chronic conditions,' the agency warns. 'Without SNAP, more vulnerable Minnesotans will go without consistent access to food, increasing the strain on an already stretched health system.' A 2022 study by researchers at the Department of Human Services found that for every additional month a recipient received SNAP benefits, their annual health care costs decreased by roughly $99.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Reporting work requirements are bad at encouraging work, good at making people sick and hungry
A 'SNAP welcomed here' sign is seen at the entrance to a Big Lots store in Portland, Oregon. (Getty Images) Congress wants to make work reporting requirements in safety net programs harsher and more pervasive to remove supports from tens of thousands of Mainers and use that money to pay for tax cuts that overwhelmingly go to the wealthy. Maine has been down this road before and saw that work requirements take away help from people who need it and don't support work. The congressional bill currently under consideration would make work requirements harsher in three ways. It would: Expand the existing requirement in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for adults without dependents or a documented disability by increasing the age limit from 55 to 64, which will put 4,000 older adult Mainers newly at risk of losing food assistance. Change the definition of 'dependent' to only apply to children under the age of 7, which will put another 27,000 parents and caregivers of school-age kids at risk of losing food assistance. In total, 31,000 Mainers are likely to lose food assistance under these two changes. Impose a similar work reporting requirement on the Medicaid (MaineCare) program for the first time in the program's history. 34,000 Mainers are likely to lose health care under this change. While some Republicans have sought to portray work requirements as distinct from benefit cuts, the proven reality is these changes will remove millions of Americans from the affected programs, the majority of whom are working, caregiving, or suffering from a serious health condition that prevents them from working. Work requirements create a lot of new paperwork and administrative barriers. According to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, these would cost $6 million a year in additional administrative costs alone. The extra bureaucratic hoops also lead to the disenrollment of many people who are meeting the requirements but just get caught up in red tape. By one estimate, 13% of people impacted by the congressional proposal would not currently meet the work requirements for Medicaid and don't qualify for an exemption, but the actual number who would lose care is three times higher (39%), meaning that the majority of people losing coverage already participate in the workforce or qualify for an exemption. Approximately one third of Maine workers below traditional retirement age work less than full-time, year-round. In a seasonal economy like Maine's, it can be particularly hard for people to meet a work reporting requirement on a consistent basis every month because the jobs simply aren't available or the hours vary. Many Mainers have health conditions that make it hard for them to work but are not always easy to prove to gain an exemption from a work requirement. As many as 110,000 Mainers aged 18 to 64 report having some kind of disability, but only 30,000 of them actually receive Social Security Disability benefits, leaving tens of thousands of Mainers with a harder time proving their disability to gain an exemption. There are plenty of other obstacles to work that the bill doesn't recognize. A 2021 survey of unemployed Mainers found that one in eight couldn't work due to childcare problems, and 6% didn't have reliable transportation. Finally, it's worth remembering that food and medical assistance are key to health and stability people need to engage in the labor force. Medicaid expansion has increased employment among adults with disabilities and SNAP has also been shown to help people find and keep employment by freeing up money for expenses like childcare. Taking both away from folks who can't find consistent work will only make their barriers to employment worse as well as make it harder for them to get by in general. Maine has prior experience with expanding work requirements that proved unsuccessful. In late 2014, then-Governor Paul LePage expanded work requirements in the SNAP program for adults without a documented disability who did not have children at home. Nearly three quarters of the SNAP recipients who were subject to the new requirements lost their benefits, with tens of thousands losing assistance over the next few years. Many of those who lost benefits were still unable to find work in the year afterwards, and those who did had incomes well below the poverty line. A 2017 survey of Mainers who lost SNAP benefits due to the LePage policy changes found that almost 80% of them had to use food pantries more often after the change, and 86% said it led to them making difficult choices between paying for food and other necessities like rent or health care. National research shows similar patterns in the SNAP program — the federal work reporting requirement makes it much more likely that people will lose food assistance but does nothing meaningful to help those folks find work. Recently several states have experimented with work requirements in Medicaid, with similarly poor results: Under Arkansas' temporary Medicaid work requirement, one in four people subject to the new test lost their health care coverage, most of whom could not get alternative health insurance, and there was no evidence of increased employment as a result. Georgia imposed the work requirement when they expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. One year into the program, just 2% of people thought to be eligible for the program have enrolled, leaving hundreds of thousands of people unable to get health care. This is despite the state spending millions of dollars on consultants to conduct an outreach campaign. New Hampshire suspended its Medicaid work requirement after it had trouble even notifying impacted enrollees about the change. Despite multiple outreach efforts, nearly half of the people potentially subject to the work requirement didn't even receive notices from the state. Of those assessed for the work requirement, only one third were judged to be meeting it when the policy was suspended. Congress is at risk of repeating the mistakes made in Maine and other states and expanding them to the whole country in its reconciliation bill. Work requirements are efficient at taking food and health care away and creating more costly rules for states, but they don't lead to more people working. Tens of thousands of Mainers will lose access to health care and food assistance and will suffer real hardships as a result. This commentary was originally published by the Maine Center for Economic Policy blog. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Business
- Newsweek
Two More States Ban Junk Food From SNAP Benefits
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Iowa and Indiana have received a waiver approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ban junk food from being bought using SNAP benefits. The push to limit SNAP purchases in Republican states has divided opinion, with one expert telling Newsweek that "the intent is power and controlling individuals with low incomes rather than improving nutrition." Why It Matters Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, also known as "food stamps," are paid to low- and no-income households across the U.S. that would otherwise struggle to afford groceries. Across both states, nearly 1 million people receive the anti-poverty benefit. The approvals come as several Republican states push to limit what can be purchased with SNAP benefits. Nebraska became the first state to have its waiver request approved by the USDA just last week, banning soda and energy drinks purchases. What To Know USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins confirmed she had approved both of the requests in a press release issued on May 23. Indiana's waiver excludes soft drinks and candy, and it will take effect on January 1, 2026. In Iowa, the waiver excludes any food item eligible for sales tax including sweetened beverages, snacks, and candy, and will take effect on the same day. A waiver grants flexibility by modifying specific USDA program rules, enabling states to administer the SNAP program in different ways. Various states currently have SNAP waivers in place, and they were widely implemented during the coronavirus pandemic to enhance access to food benefits. A "SNAP welcomed here" sign is seen at the entrance to a Big Lots store in Portland, Oregon, in October 2022. A "SNAP welcomed here" sign is seen at the entrance to a Big Lots store in Portland, Oregon, in October 2022. GETTY "States have always been the greatest laboratories of democracy, and I am confident the best ideas will come from them," Rollins said in a statement sent to Newsweek. "Whether demonstration pilots on allowable purchases, or newfound ways to connect work-capable adults to jobs, or even new ways to get food to communities, I will continue to encourage states to be bold and enact change." Supporters of limiting SNAP purchases argue the goal is to reduce preventable chronic health conditions by encouraging healthier food choices through SNAP. But critics have argued the policy is paternalistic and fails to address the fact that many low-income communities lack access to healthy, affordable food options. What People Are Saying Iowa's Republican Governor Kim Reynolds: "Soaring obesity rates have brought our nation and state to a crossroads. To promote healthy eating and protect future generations from disease—and to ensure SNAP fulfills its core function—we need a change. Thank you to Secretary Rollins and her team for helping make that change happen." Indiana Governor Mike Braun, also a Republican: "Indiana is proud to be a leader in the Make America Healthy Again initiative, and today Secretary Rollins signed our waiver to return SNAP in Indiana to its intended purpose: nutrition. President Trump and Secretary Rollins are putting our farmers first and supporting American agriculture, and I was proud to join them today." Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center, told The Associated Press: "Incentive-based approaches—not punitive restrictions—are the most effective, dignified path to improving nutrition and reducing hunger." Kavelle Christie, a health policy and advocacy expert, told Newsweek: "These proposals may seem appealing at first—after all, who wouldn't want to promote healthier eating habits? However, examining them closely makes it clear that the intent is power and controlling individuals with low incomes rather than improving nutrition. "SNAP has long been a political target, often viewed as a means to impose moral judgments on low-income families rather than recognized as the essential safety net it truly is." What Happens Next Rollins said she looked forward "to signing even more waivers in the days ahead as we continue to restore the health of America."
