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1
PART I
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
The Company
Big Lots, Inc., an Ohio corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiaries (collectively referred to herein
as “we,” “us,” and “our” except as used in the reports of our independent registered public accounting firm
included in Item 8 of this Annual Report for Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”)), is the nation’s largest broadline
closeout retailer (see the discussion below under the caption “Closeout Retailing”). At January 29, 2011, we
operated a total of 1,398 stores in 48 states. Our goal is to strengthen and build upon our leadership position in
broadline closeout retailing by providing our customers with great savings on brand-name closeouts and other
value-priced merchandise. You can locate us on the Internet at www.biglots.com. The contents of our websites
are not part of this report.
Similar to many other retailers, our fiscal year ends on the Saturday nearest to January 31, which results in some
fiscal years comprised of 52 weeks and some comprised of 53 weeks. Unless otherwise stated, references to
years in this report relate to fiscal years rather than calendar years. The following table provides a summary of
our fiscal year calendar and the associated number of weeks in the fiscal year:
Fiscal Year Number of Weeks Year Begin Date Year End Date
2011 .................. 52 January 30, 2011 January 28, 2012
2010 .................. 52 January 31, 2010 January 29, 2011
2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 February 1, 2009 January 30, 2010
2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 February 3, 2008 January 31, 2009
2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 February 4, 2007 February 2, 2008
2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 January 29, 2006 February 3, 2007
We manage our business on the basis of one segment: broadline closeout retailing. Please refer to the
consolidated financial statements and related notes in this Form 10-K for our financial information. We evaluate
and report overall sales and merchandise performance based on the following key merchandising categories:
Consumables, Furniture, Home, Hardlines, Seasonal, and Other. The Consumables category includes the
food, health and beauty, plastics, paper, chemical, and pet departments. The Furniture category includes the
upholstery, mattresses, ready-to-assemble, and case goods departments. Case goods consist of bedroom, dining
room, and occasional furniture. The Home category includes the domestics, stationery, and home decorative
departments. The Hardlines category includes the electronics, appliances, tools, and home maintenance
departments. The Seasonal category includes the lawn & garden, Christmas, summer, and other holiday
departments. The Other category includes the toy, jewelry, infant accessories, and apparel departments and
also includes the results of certain large closeout deals that we typically acquire through our alternate product
sourcing operations. See note 13 to the accompanying consolidated financial statements for the net sales results
of these categories for 2010, 2009, and 2008.
In May 2001, Big Lots, Inc. was incorporated in Ohio and was the surviving entity in a merger with
Consolidated Stores Corporation, a Delaware corporation. By virtue of the merger, Big Lots, Inc. succeeded to
all the business, properties, assets, and liabilities of Consolidated Stores Corporation.
Our principal executive offices are located at 300 Phillipi Road, Columbus, Ohio 43228, and our telephone
number is (614) 278-6800. All of our operations were located within the United States of America at the end of
each of the last three years.
Closeout Retailing
Closeout merchandise generally results from production overruns, packaging changes, discontinued products,
liquidations, returns, and other disruptions in the supply chain of manufacturers. As a result, we can generally
purchase closeout merchandise at lower costs than would be paid by traditional discount retailers, and offer
closeout merchandise at lower prices than those offered by traditional discount retailers. We attempt to
maximize the amount of closeout merchandise available in our stores. We work closely with our vendors