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GRAND OPENING: New Big Lots store in Kettering releases details of gift-card event

Big Lots has opened its relocated store in former Elder-Beerman space in Kettering Towne Center, and a nearby store at 2800 Wilmington Pike has shut down. A grand opening is planned in late May.

Credit: Mark Fisher

Credit: Mark Fisher

Big Lots has opened its relocated store in former Elder-Beerman space in Kettering Towne Center, and a nearby store at 2800 Wilmington Pike has shut down. A grand opening is planned in late May.
What to Know
By Mark Fisher
April 8, 2020
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National discount retailer Big Lots has fully opened its new store in the Kettering Towne Center and is planning a ribbon-cutting and grand-opening event next month.

The grand opening, which will reward as many as 200 early-bird customers over two days with gift cards valued at up to $250, had been scheduled for April 25, but a Big Lots spokeswoman said this week that the event has been postponed by a month.

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A ribbon cutting is now planned for May 23 at the new store at 2050 E. Dorothy Lane. The first 100 shoppers coming into the store on both Saturday, May 23 and on Sunday, May 24, will receive a Big Lots scratch-off card, which will provide customers an amount up to $250 to use towards a Big Lots purchase, company officials said in a release.

Big Lots stores sell grocery items, among other merchandise, and is therefore considered an “essential business” under state coronavirus pandemic guidelines.

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The new Kettering store has an updated layout and design.

“We are excited to introduce our new store format to Kettering,” Steve Haffer, senior vice president and chief customer officer of Big Lots, said in a release. “It brings to life our new brand traits and showcases our product assortments of affordable solutions in Furniture, Seasonal, Home, Food, and Consumables. We are also very proud to serve alongside the Kettering community.”

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The new store’s opening in mid-March coincided with the closure of the Big Lots store that had operated for several  years at 2800 Wilmington Pike, north of East Dorothy Lane in Kettering.

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The new Kettering Towne Center Big Lots store resurrected retail space that been occupied by an Elder-Beerman department store that had shut down in 2018, when Elder-Beerman’s parent company, Bon-Ton, filed for bankruptcy and closed all of its locations in the U.S. Decades ago, the space housed a Rike’s department store, and the surrounding retail center was known as the Rike’s Kettering shopping center.

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Big Lots, which is headquartered in Columbus, has over 1,400 stores in 47 states. The company has nearly 100 stores in Ohio, including several in the Dayton area.

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About the Author

Mark Fisher, a 1981 graduate of Ohio State University and a 1976 graduate of Beavercreek High School, is a third-generation Dayton-area resident who has worked for the Dayton Daily News since 1983. He covered higher education and K-12 education accountability issues for nearly 20 years before taking over the food and dining beat in 2006.