Some sad news for those of you who love shopping at chain stores. Popular retail chain Big Lots will be a lot less big moving forward. The company announced it will be closing almost 90 locations in several states with at least one closing in Massachusetts.

Anyone who follows the news even somewhat closely knows that these closures are part of a trend lately of many retailers closing locations all over the country. Big Lots is a big box discount retailer that mainly sells clothing, food, furniture, and home décor items.

Not even a month after Big Lots announced it would be closing 35 to 40 stores in the coming months, dozens of locations are in the final stages of remaining open with many locations currently holding huge closeout sales.

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WWLP News 22 in Springfield reports that, at least for now, the only Massachusetts location set to close is the Dennis Port location. I will always have fond memories of Big Lots. Here's a quick story.

When I was a kid living in Hawaii, my family had a huge, comfortable papasan chair. I would always curl up nice and cozy in that chair and I would be in dreamland in a matter of minutes. Not familiar with papasan chairs? Here's a picture of one type:

Photo by avery klein on Unsplash
Photo by avery klein on Unsplash
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The chair we had looked a little different. Surrounding the entire interior of the chair was a big, fluffy ORANGE cushion. Man, was that sucker comfortable! Anyway, when we moved back to the mainland, we left the papasan chair behind.

And that was it for me and my experience with papasan chairs. That is until decades later while shopping at the Pittsfield Big Lots store (which was still in the Allendale Shopping Center at the time), and what did I see with my wandering eye?

That's right! A big, comfortable papasan chair! Which I had to have immediately. Thanks Big Lots! According to the website, Big Lots still has numerous stores in Massachusetts that remain open including Attleboro, Danvers, Franklin, Northampton, West Springfield, and our own location on Dalton Avenue in Pittsfield.

For more on the story, please visit WWLP's website here for more info including other locations in nearby states that are closing.

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