Big Lots
Valmont Plaza - West Hazleton, PA
The discount chain Big Lots filed for bankruptcy in October, and a few days ago, it was announced that they would liquidate all of their remaining stock at clearance sales and close its 900+ stores in the United States, including the one that has been in my hometown for the past 30 years.
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| Standard Speaker - Hazleton, PA (March 26, 1994) |
The Big Lots in West Hazleton opened in 1994, right around the same time that I moved back to Pennsylvania. It took over a storefront that was once occupied by an Insalaco's grocery store where my grandparents used to shop when I was a kid.
Hazleton is a working class area, so it was a perfect place for a store like Big Lots. They were a closeout store that purchased items in bulk from sellers who were highly motivated to unload their stock, and they'd pass the savings onto their customers. The prices here were especially reasonable in the 90's and early 2000's when I could often find something that I needed to pick up for about half of what it cost at Wal-Mart.
One of the best values that this store offered was its furniture. I've gotten quite a few bookshelves and computer desks here over the years at a fraction of the price that most of the other stores in the area were charging. This was also a big help when my wife and I bought our house. The loveseat that I'm sitting on right now as I type this, as well as the sofa to my left and the tv stand to my right were all purchased from Big Lots in 2011.
They always had a good stock of paintings and wall art available, most of which cost between $10 and $20. The artwork was usually the kind of thing that you'd see hanging at a hotel or a conference hall, but it wasn't bad. There's a framed piece of art that has been hanging on the wall above my television for the past 13 years that we picked up from Big Lots for about ten dollars.
There was always a good supply of wires and gadgets available here at severely discounted prices. Most of their stock was either several years out of date or from brands that I've never heard of, but the availability of this merchandise came in handy for me on more than one occasion. This was especially true after our local Radio Shack closed. If you needed a cheap USB cord, a thumb drive, a phone charger, a cheap pair of headphones, a keyboard or mouse, or something along those lines, there was a really good chance that you'd find it here for about the cost of a fast food value meal. Hell, they still had coax cable wire for sale when I stopped in a few days ago to take these pictures.
Another thing they had in abundance at this place was plastic storage bins. These damn things came in handy on many occasions, especially when it came time to put away holiday decorations. It was especially appropriate in my case since a good amount of the Christmas decorations I had were purchased at Big Lots in the first place. The prices for gift bags and wrapping paper alone made this place worth stopping during the Christmas season. Other stores would sell a roll of wrapping paper for three bucks, give or take. Here, you could find the same thing for a dollar or 50 cents, and even less than that when they marked it down after the holidays.
The toy aisle at Big Lots was always a lot of fun to look through. Most of their stock comes from closeout sales. They purchase their merchandise at severely discounted rates from other stores that were going out of business, or from warehouses that had an overstock of products that they couldn't get rid of. As a result, there were usually a lot of new old stock and oddities that never caught on enough to be distributed to larger stores.
In my previous job, I was the trainer for a team of customer service representatives that handled consumer contacts for Nestle confections, baking, and ice cream products. My company would reimburse me for anything that I wanted to buy to use for training, and I found a lot of our products here that no other store in my area had. I remember buying a hell of a lot of Nestle Milk Chocolate, Oh Henry, and 100 Grand bars here to share with our new hire classes.
In the late 80's and early 90's, Valmont Plaza was a pretty busy place where you could go and conceivably purchase everything that you needed all in one strip mall. When Big Lots closes their doors for the last time, it will leave just two occupants remaining: Michael's craft store and the Yong Hao Buffet. There's already a lot of empty storefronts here, some of which haven't had a tenant in over twenty years. I'm still going to be here about once a month because Yong Hao is the best Chinese takeout that I've ever had, but it's going to feel like ordering Chinese food in a ghost town.
