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Flat Year for Big Lots

COLUMBUS, OH-Tough times for the discounter's target demographic boded ill for comp growth in 2004.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on February 23, 2005

COLUMBUS, OH-Economic and job uncertainty last year for lower-income American families caused ripples that affected retailers that cater to their needs, such as the closeout retailer Big Lots Inc. “There’s really no other way to characterize 2004 for Big Lots other than to say that it was extremely disappointing,” said Michael J. Potter, the company’s chairman and CEO during Wednesday’s earnings conference call. “It proved to be challenging for us and other retailers who target the budget shopper.”

Comparable store sales for Big Lots in its fourth fiscal quarter of 2004 (ended Jan. 29) declined 1.3% compared with Q4 2003, which the company attributed to a blend of a 1.6% increase in the value of average transactions and a 2.9% decrease in the number of transactions. Comp-store sales were flat for the entire year of 2004 when compared with 2003; the value of the average transaction increased 2%, but the number of transactions decreased 2%.

Net sales for the fourth quarter of ’04 were about $1.38 billion, compared to net sales of about $1.32 billion for the same period of fiscal 2003. Net sales for the fiscal 2004 were $4.375 billion, compared to $4.174 billion in fiscal 2003.

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