I know it’s Christmas, and I’m not trying to rain on everyone’s holiday parade, but I did feel the need this week to briefly discuss some unfortunate recent developments, and ask folks to please remember those individuals who are now going through the difficult process of losing their jobs.
Like many of you, I started seeing headlines last week about Big Lots stores going out of business. I drove out to our local Big Lots location in Corbin’s Trademart Center on Friday evening, and sure enough, the windows were full of signs notifying shoppers that a store closing sale was actively in progress.
I asked to speak to a manager about the situation, but was told that management has been instructed not to offer any comments to the media. So, I called a number to see if I could reach someone in the Big Lots corporate offices. No luck.
One employee at the Corbin store did comment to me that the news of the closings was “devastating,” and I can only imagine how many other people across the country are currently feeling the same way. It’s never easy to learn that you’re getting sent home from your job, but it’s even tougher to receive that kind of news during this particular time of the year.
In my family, we have lovingly referred to Big Lots as “Flip Flops” for years now. This started after my daughter called it that when she was probably 2-3 years old. It’s hard to believe that my wife taking her on shopping trips to “Flip Flops” will soon be a thing of the past.
For everyone who works at Big Lots stores in Corbin, London, Richmond, Somerset, Middlesboro and other locations across the state and country, I am sorry about this situation. I wish you all the best of luck as you begin figuring out how to move forward.
While looking up some info about the Big Lots situation online, I came across a CNN Business article about another big chain store, Party City, which is apparently also going out of business. We do not have any Party City locations in our area, but there are stores in Lexington, Louisville, Bowling Green and Florence.
According to the article, Party City’s CEO has informed staff that they will not be receiving severance pay and that their benefits will end when the company officially goes out of business, probably sometime in February.
Again, according to the article, the CEO said that the company has struggled to contend with inflation, which contributed to costs going up while at the same time negatively affecting consumer spending. Unfortunately, that sounds all-too-familiar these days.
Yet another brand that I have heard a lot about recently is Frisch’s Big Boy. Now, I have not heard anything about our nearest location, in London, being affected (thank goodness), but there have been a lot of headlines recently about many other locations having to close their doors.
According to a couple of recent articles by the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Cincinnati Enquirer, several Frisch’s restaurants have closed, or are in the process of closing, in the Lexington and Northern Kentucky areas. Once again, this is putting people in the tough spot of suddenly finding themselves unemployed during a time when literally every penny counts. It is sad to think about, but it’s way worse for the people who are actually in this position right now.
There are other national chains that have announced plans to scale back considerably in recent months. Of course, there are also a ton of small businesses out there who are continuing to struggle every day to keep the lights on. Things are, generally speaking, not easy out there at the moment. Please, let’s do our best to remember that as we all go about navigating our own lives. It’s easy to get tunnel vision sometimes and forget about everything that is going on around us (I am guilty of that), but if you have a steady paycheck coming in right now, just take a second to be thankful for that. The unfortunate reality is that many folks aren’t able to say the same.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and if it isn’t as merry as you would like, then I hope things will begin to look up soon.
