Big Lots

To me, Big Lots is the ghost of Christmas past. When my family first moved to the United States, times were tough for us for a few years. We learned to be resourceful, and part of that meant shopping at Big Lots. When my chums from school would rave about how they got their toys from Toys R Us, or KB Toys, I would quietly enjoy the gifts that I myself received, even if they were from a major discount store/​final closeout distribution center. I saw a lot of «cash out of envelope counting» growing up, and probably nowhere as prevalent as Big Lots.
Throughout the years, my perception of BL has changed. After you figure out the expiration date system that some stores use, you come to realize that a lot of the food products are still within a decent time frame for «sell by», i.e., 2 — 4 months. If you’re ok freezing the bakery items they have until you’re ready to use them, you can probably score a bigger deal, and it’s still one of the only places where one can find the fatticus, I mean SUPER fatticus snack cakes just waiting for you in all their fatty glory.
Times have changed for the better, though since I’ve recently moved to Cary into a rental home that’s much too large than I know what to do with, my wife wanted a pre-​lit Christmas tree that fits into our empty «parlour». (yes, I spelled it with an ‘our’ since it’s pinky up Cary style). Instinctively, I knew that the place we should head to is Big Lots…
Location: 3 out of 5
Convenient location at Kildaire and Maynard, a bit north of the «fancy» shops at Shoppes of Kildaire. If you need gas, sushi, a burger joint, or grocery store — they’re all within close distance to this particular BL. The façade of the shopping complex makes this BL look a bit more upscale and less sterile. Parking is ample in the lot they share with the other stores in the strip.
Customer Service: 3 out of 5
They seemed to be a bit understaffed on a Saturday evening. While they did have one person roaming the aisle to make sure that people found what they were looking for, he ended up having to come up to work the register when the registers got swamped. The cashiers were all friendly enough, and I saw that one of them had been «part of the Big Lots family» for 15 years, based on a name tag.
Organization/​Cleanliness: 4 out of 5
As expected, the holiday season can lead to some innate madness, and this store was no different. Some aisles had random stuff out, but for the most part, this store was well organized, clean, and well-​lit. They even have a furniture showroom that incidentally, had rocking recliners on sale for 200 $.
Value: 5 out of 5
Probably still the best value going for home décor. Got a 7.5 ft decent looking prelit tree, a yard ornament, and an outdoor extension cord for 160 $ out the door. The boxes are actually marked with the distributor’s name, which is «closeout distribution». Heh — I suspect that my items were probably awesome about 2 –3 years ago, and just never got sold in the «regular’ stores. Fine with me, because now I have a light up pig in a Santa costume.
Overall: 4 out of 5
The shopping experience at BL isn’t going to be for everyone, but for holiday décor at great prices, you’d be hard pressed to find something better.