Ollie's Bargain Outlet

[scottw73]

It would be nice if Ollies came to Connecticut, but they probably won't due to Ocean State Job Lot.

Looks like the will be taking over the former Kmart on Wolcott Street in Waterbury, drove by yesterday and saw dumpsters out front and a banner on the roof saying "Coming Soon, Ollies Bargain Outlet" next time I'm over there, ill snap some pics

[ynkeesfn82]

*Sigh* Waterbury needs another store like that like I need to gain another 10 pounds.

Big Lots is on the other side of Wolcott Street in part of the old Shoprite. Ocean State Job Lot is right around the corner off Lakewood Road. Shopper's World is at the Brass Mill Mall. One has to wonder how much of the old KMART they're taking.

At least there's not space big enough in Bristol for one. Shoprite Plaza has no vacancies. Stop & Shop Plaza doesn't have space big enough. (Even if they did Job Lot is already in that plaza). Hobby Lobby Plaza has 2 side by side spaces that make up 32,000 Square Feet, but Big Lots is already in that Plaza. Price Chopper Plaza doesn't have space big enough.

They should come to New Britain. Shaw's and Walmart are still empty.

[BillyGr]

*Sigh* Waterbury needs another store like that like I need to gain another 10 pounds.

Big Lots is on the other side of Wolcott Street in part of the old Shoprite. Ocean State Job Lot is right around the corner off Lakewood Road. Shopper's World is at the Brass Mill Mall. One has to wonder how much of the old KMART they're taking.

At least there's not space big enough in Bristol for one. Shoprite Plaza has no vacancies. Stop & Shop Plaza doesn't have space big enough. (Even if they did Job Lot is already in that plaza). Hobby Lobby Plaza has 2 side by side spaces that make up 32,000 Square Feet, but Big Lots is already in that Plaza. Price Chopper Plaza doesn't have space big enough.

They should come to New Britain. Shaw's and Walmart are still empty.

Although sometimes it makes sense with these types of stores, as they each are likely to get different types of deals at some point, so they have similar items but not always the exact same ones.  And they will draw people from a wider area if they know there are several places close together where they can go.

[ynkeesfn82]

Ollie's in Waterbury, Connecticut opening November 4th. It's in the former KMART at 881 Wolcott Street. Wish I could go, but I can't. Wonder how much of the 95,000 Square Foot building they took. BTW November 4th is almost 2 years to the day that KMART closed.

[scottw73]

Went to Ollie's in Waterbury yesterday, and was disappointed.  They only took less than 1/2 of the original Kmart space, you can definatly see the old Little Ceasers area, aisles were very small and cramped and oddly layed out, they also tore down the old garden area. OSJL and Big  Lots are much larger in square footage than Ollies, would rather have seen them take over Kmart than Ollies.

[BillyGr]

Went to Ollie's in Waterbury yesterday, and was disappointed.  They only took less than 1/2 of the original Kmart space, you can definatly see the old Little Ceasers area, aisles were very small and cramped and oddly layed out, they also tore down the old garden area. OSJL and Big  Lots are much larger in square footage than Ollies, would rather have seen them take over Kmart than Ollies.

Sounds similar in size as the couple local ones are in what were smaller stores (like a Linens/Things size).
Plus, according to the above posts, aren't there already Big Lots & OSJL in that area?

[scottw73]

Went to Ollie's in Waterbury yesterday, and was disappointed.  They only took less than 1/2 of the original Kmart space, you can definatly see the old Little Ceasers area, aisles were very small and cramped and oddly layed out, they also tore down the old garden area. OSJL and Big  Lots are much larger in square footage than Ollies, would rather have seen them take over Kmart than Ollies.

Sounds similar in size as the couple local ones are in what were smaller stores (like a Linens/Things size).
Plus, according to the above posts, aren't there already Big Lots & OSJL in that area?

yes, OSJL is on Lakewood Road and Big Lots in down the street where Shoprite was

[dmx10101]

Went to Ollie's in Waterbury yesterday, and was disappointed.  They only took less than 1/2 of the original Kmart space, you can definatly see the old Little Ceasers area, aisles were very small and cramped and oddly layed out, they also tore down the old garden area. OSJL and Big  Lots are much larger in square footage than Ollies, would rather have seen them take over Kmart than Ollies.

According to Ollie's website.."New stores range in size from 25,000 to 35,000 square feet."

[Loki]

Ollies Waterbury, CT grand opening.

[ynkeesfn82]

Ollie's in Waterbury, Connecticut opening November 4th. It's in the former KMART at 881 Wolcott Street. Wish I could go, but I can't. Wonder how much of the 95,000 Square Foot building they took. BTW November 4th is almost 2 years to the day that KMART closed.

To answer my own question I paid the 75 cents and went on the website of the Waterbury Newspaper and found out Ollie's took 32,000 square feet of the former KMART. That means there is about 63,000 Square Feet left. I don't have a car at the moment so I can't check out the store for myself. (I really want to). Maybe in the spring.

[JimSawhill]

Ollie's opened in an old Winn Dixie on Waters Ave in Tampa. It looked like they kicked Winn Dixie out one night and opened the next day. They had some good books there...The WalMart in the plaza must be one of the oldest in Tampa.

[TheFugitive]

Got a flyer in the mail announcing that Ollie's is opening in the former Gander Mountain
location in West Mifflin, PA. 

This is just down the hill from a Super Walmart.   Should get a lot of traffic.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I hope they open up more locations in the Midwest soon. There's a vacant Toys "R" Us store between a Goodwill and a building shared by Burlington and Michaels that would be perfect for a retailer of this type.

[deerwrecker2017]

Got a flyer in the mail announcing that Ollie's is opening in the former Gander Mountain
location in West Mifflin, PA. 

This is just down the hill from a Super Walmart.   Should get a lot of traffic.

I actually heard about that new Ollie's location around the beginning of October when I found a posting on Craigslist about that Ollie's location looking for people who want to work there (The E-Mail that was listed on that posting was invalid).

[TheFugitive]

Got a flyer in the mail announcing that Ollie's is opening in the former Gander Mountain
location in West Mifflin, PA. 

This is just down the hill from a Super Walmart.   Should get a lot of traffic.

I actually heard about that new Ollie's location around the beginning of October when I found a posting on Craigslist about that Ollie's location looking for people who want to work there (The E-Mail that was listed on that posting was invalid).

Dead email links are not a very effective recruiting strategy.   ::)

[deerwrecker2017]

Got a flyer in the mail announcing that Ollie's is opening in the former Gander Mountain
location in West Mifflin, PA. 

This is just down the hill from a Super Walmart.   Should get a lot of traffic.

I actually heard about that new Ollie's location around the beginning of October when I found a posting on Craigslist about that Ollie's location looking for people who want to work there (The E-Mail that was listed on that posting was invalid).

Dead email links are not a very effective recruiting strategy.   ::)

Likely nobody knows the cause of the Dead E-Mail link issue but it is true that Dead E-Mail links are definitely not effective as any recruiting strategy at all.

[giantsfan2016]

I went to the Ollie's for the first time today. My friend Geno (Mr. Caldor on here) and I went with his Mom to the one on Broad Street in Manchester, Connecticut. - What a dump. Biggest shocker about Ollie's? They were selling refrigerators from Lowe's. (I know they are a close-out chain, but still thought it was odd).

[BillyGr]

I went to the Ollie's for the first time today. My friend Geno (Mr. Caldor on here) and I went with his Mom to the one on Broad Street in Manchester, Connecticut. - What a dump. Biggest shocker about Ollie's? They were selling refrigerators from Lowe's. (I know they are a close-out chain, but still thought it was odd).

May just be that one - ours seems to be OK.  However, we do have that with Ocean State here - they have one store that is in what is really a too small spot for them, so it always looks bad as they try to fit everything in that they'd have in their other larger (some probably double the size) locations.

[shore72]

I went to the Ollie's for the first time today. My friend Geno (Mr. Caldor on here) and I went with his Mom to the one on Broad Street in Manchester, Connecticut. - What a dump. Biggest shocker about Ollie's? They were selling refrigerators from Lowe's. (I know they are a close-out chain, but still thought it was odd).

Not all locations have major appliances but many do, including the one we shop. Honestly I hadn't looked close enough to figure out what store they were getting them from. They just started that earlier in the year. And, yeah, compared to most any other chain store I guess "dump" would be accurate. On a recent trip one of the employees was really stressed because they had truckloads of merchandise that had just arrived & no place to put it. In some ways  it reminds me of an older Dollar General but supersized. Some of those older DG's could be almost impossible to shop when the truck came due to blocked aisles.

[esw01407]

I went to the Ollie's for the first time today. My friend Geno (Mr. Caldor on here) and I went with his Mom to the one on Broad Street in Manchester, Connecticut. - What a dump. Biggest shocker about Ollie's? They were selling refrigerators from Lowe's. (I know they are a close-out chain, but still thought it was odd).

The older ones can have problems. Store #1 just moved into an former HHGreg with 40,000+ sq ft, big upgrade. Selingrove PA has really bad roof leaks and is dangerously crowded, former Grants. Allentown Near the Airport is a former Service Merchandise, similar crowding but slightly less roof leaks.

In some ways  it reminds me of an older Dollar General but supersized. Some of those older DG's could be almost impossible to shop when the truck came due to blocked aisles.

Unfortunately, even new DG's have this problem. Our local one is bad when they get a delivery, and the two older stores in the next town over are worse.

[giantsfan2016]

Not all locations have major appliances but many do, including the one we shop. Honestly I hadn't looked close enough to figure out what store they were getting them from.

I only knew they were from Lowe's because several had stickers on them that said LOWES.COM  :-P

[TheFugitive]

The flyer I got for the West Mifflin grand opening said that "Ollies' has acquired $200 million worth of inventory from a major retail toy chain!"  Aside that was a cartoon of Ollie hugging a cartoon giraffe.

Gee, I wonder who it could be??   ::)

[esw01407]

The flyer I got for the West Mifflin grand opening said that "Ollies' has acquired $200 million worth of inventory from a major retail toy chain!"  Aside that was a cartoon of Ollie hugging a cartoon giraffe.

Gee, I wonder who it could be??   ::)

Stuff started rolling in mid-summer. Exclusives from Walmart and Target were also in the buyout.

[retailisking]

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/12/ollies-ceo-mark-butler-remembered-for-business-acumen-varied-passions-and-dedication-to-local-causes.html

[Retail Regents]

It would be nice if Ollies came to Connecticut, but they probably won't due to Ocean State Job Lot.

They are starting to overlap here in NY, though not in exactly the same spots (Ollie's in Kingston, OSJL in Poughkeepsie and Fishkill, and Ollie's in Guilderland and OSJL in Albany, Schenectady).

Although the Guilderland/Albany ones are only about 4-5 miles apart, so fairly close.

Of course OSJL probably has a few more stores in CT then the 7 or 8 in NY so far, so that might make a difference.

Another NY overlap is OSJL in Ballston Spa and Ollie's in Queensbury.

[buzz86us]

I feel Ocean State Job Lot is more pricey than Ollie's Bargain Outlet so not much overlap

[BillyGr]

I feel Ocean State Job Lot is more pricey than Ollie's Bargain Outlet so not much overlap

Some of that may be that Ocean State has some items that are made specifically for them (thus they carry the same thing anytime you go) which is probably going to be a bit more costly to do than simply buying up what others want to get rid of.

[Kmart4life]

I like Ollie's they are a pretty cool store, they opened in October of 2018 in the old hh greg here.

[BillyGr]

New store opening August 21st in Crossgates Commons in Albany, NY

Looks to be around the "back" side of the stores (from the map in the ad announcing it), on the Home Depot side.

This is the first one in the area - closest one now is in Kingston (behind Walmart next to the mall).

In early 2021, they "lost their lease" and closed this store.  They opened a new one late in the year (OCt I think) in Latham Farms, the old Dick's space (Dick's had moved to a former Walmart and added a Field & Stream store as well).

Ollie's also opened a new store in Hudson NY (filling between the existing Kingston and new Latham/existing Queensbury markets) in a former Peebles that had reopened as a Gordmans for about a month pre-pandemic then closed as the chain went out completely later in 2020.

[Brammy]

2 more Ollie's have opened in Connecticut. One in Waterford and the other in Barkhamsted, which I think may be located in the former AMES. That brings a total of 4 Ollie's in Connecticut.