Big Lots is a U.S. discount retailer focused on home goods, operating roughly 1,400 stores across 48 states and a smaller e-commerce platform. Its core customer is a lower-income household shopping for deep discounts on furniture, home décor, and everyday essentials. Big Lots sells across six categories: furniture, seasonal, soft home, hard home, food, and consumables. Furniture is the largest category, with proprietary brands Broyhill and Real Living. Big Lots makes money by sourcing merchandise cheaply and selling it at a discount to retail prices. The key sourcing lever is closeout and bargain buying — acquiring overstock, discontinued products, and liquidations from manufacturers and distressed retailers at below-market prices. Management argues these "extreme bargains" are margin-accretive because they require fewer promotional markdowns. Big Lots also sources through direct imports (roughly 21% of merchandise cost) and private-label goods. Gross margin is driven by merchandise mix, freight costs, and markdown levels. Big Lots operates five regional distribution centers. The business is highly seasonal, with Q4 (Christmas) being the largest and most profitable quarter. Big Lots entered FY23 in a turnaround after two years of losses, and management is executing a five-part plan to reclaim the company's off-price identity — targeting closeout penetration of 75%+ of sales, up from below 10% when current leadership arrived — alongside cost reductions targeting $200M+ in cumulative savings through a program called Project Springboard.