WARSAW — The Warsaw Big Lots store — opened less than two years ago — is among many being closed, according to various reports.

The store opened in November of 2022, marking a return to the local market after the company left more than a dozen years earlier.

A manager at the store Saturday morning declined to comment and referred questions to their corporate office.

Other Indiana stores were part of a long list also expected to close.

[caption id="attachment_96570" align="alignright" width="360"] Above is a list of Big Lots stores in Indiana that are expected to close, according to a report by ENAS.com.[/caption]

ENAS.com reported Saturday that the "Giant retailer Big Lots is reportedly set to close almost 300 stores across the United States. The company recorded a net loss of more than $200 million for the first quarter of their fiscal year."

The discount store company attributed the drop to a “challenging consumer environment,” the story said.

Big Lots reported a net loss of $205 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2024, which ended May 4.

The Warsaw closing is a setback for the revival of Marketplace of Warsaw shopping center, which recently announced plans to fill a third and final anchor position on the property with the future opening of Bealls.

The shopping center had been close to entirely closing several ago, but a new owner, Sullivan Wickley, worked to bring in new tenants including Planet Fitness and Gabe's.

The store saw brisk business Saturday morning as signs announced up to 20 percent off on some items.

"It's very surprising," said Lisa Dubea who was shopping in the store Saturday morning with her husband, Terry.

"We knew they were closing some, but this just came."

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MUNCIE — The economy is doing great, and the proof is in your spending habits, says an economist in central Indiana.

“Out of ten, I would say it’s (the economy) about a nine,” says Michael Hicks, economist at Ball State University, “it’s an astonishingly good year despite what I think a lot of folks have been hearing, particularly about inflation.”

Hicks tells IndyPolitics he’s not necessarily concerned with the various data points shared by a variety of different economists. He looks at spending and investing trends across the country, explaining that if the economy seems to be strong and reliable, people will spend more money, build more businesses, and invest more money.

Hicks says those are the kinds of trends he’s been seeing as of late, “here in Indiana, new home construction remains relatively strong, prices are up. We see consumption at record levels – this has been a record Christmas consumption in dollar terms. New business starts are at record pace across the country. The survey data asking people how they feel about the economy is very much at odds with how they are behaving.”

During the last State of the State address in January, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb praised the state of Indiana for its positive handling of its economic status.

“Our revenues increased. Our taxes and debt decreased. Since 2017, we’ve paid down our state debt by 31-percent,” said Governor Holcomb during that speech.

“People are very rational,” Hicks continues, “if they expect the economy to look down, if they’re worried about their job they tend to save, spend down on credit card debt, and tend not to be involved in expansionary consumption behavior.”

Hicks says at the fundamental level, when it comes to things like job creation and real inflation-adjusted wage growth, all of those things are doing “surprisingly well.”

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The Labor Department says the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent, reaching its lowest level in a decade.

The figures suggest that businesses expect consumer demand to rebound after a lackluster showing in the first quarter, when Americans boosted their spending at the slowest pace in seven years.

Average paychecks grew more slowly, increasing 2.5 percent over the past 12 months. That's below March's annual gain. Typically, employers are forced to pay more as they compete for a smaller pool of unemployed workers. Hourly pay gains are usually closer to 3.5 percent in a strong economy.

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