Big Lots 2012 Annual Report Download - page 81

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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 on Form 10-K (“Form 10-K”)), is North America’s largest broadline
closeout retailer (see the discussion below under the caption “Closeout Retailing”). At February 2, 2013, we
operated a total of 1,574 stores in two countries: the United States of America (“U.S.”) and Canada. 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 being comprised of 52 weeks and some being comprised of 53 weeks. Unless otherwise stated,
references to years in this Form 10-K 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 each fiscal year:
Fiscal Year Number of Weeks Year Begin Date Year End Date
2013. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 February 3, 2013 February 1, 2014
2012. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 January 29, 2012 February 2, 2013
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
We manage our broadline closeout retailing business on the basis of two segments: U.S. and Canada. Please
refer to the consolidated financial statements and related notes in this Form 10-K for our financial information.
In our U.S. segment, we evaluate and report overall sales and merchandise performance based on the following
key merchandising categories: Food, Consumables, Furniture, Home, Seasonal, Hardlines & Toys and
Electronics & Other. The Food category includes the food and specialty food departments. The Consumables
category includes the health and beauty, plastics, paper, chemical, and pet departments. The Furniture category
includes the upholstery, mattresses, ready-to-assemble, and case goods departments. The Home category
includes the domestics, stationery, and home decorative departments. The Seasonal category includes the lawn
& garden, Christmas, summer, and other holiday departments. The Hardlines & Toys category includes the
toys, appliances, tools, paint, and home maintenance departments. The Electronics & Other category includes
the electronics, jewelry, infant accessories, and apparel departments, as well as the results of certain large
closeout deals that we typically acquire through our alternate product sourcing operations. See note 15 to the
accompanying consolidated financial statements for the net sales results of our segments and these categories
for 2012, 2011, and 2010.
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. In 2010, all of our operations were located
within the U.S. In July 2011, we expanded our operations internationally into Canada with the acquisition of 100%
of the outstanding shares of Liquidation World Inc. (now known as Big Lots Canada, Inc.).
Our principal executive offices are located at 300 Phillipi Road, Columbus, Ohio 43228, and our telephone
number is [phone].