Discovering the right one thing on the excellent value is one among my favourite pastimes, and I’m not alone. Clients are flocking to off-price shops like TJMaxx, HomeGoods, and Ollie’s Cut price Outlet as layoffs mount and consumers tighten their budgets.
Foot visitors to those retail shops has surged in 2025, serving to drive gross sales increased amid a shift away from full-price shops, similar to Macy’s and greater shops like Goal.
Ollie’s Cut price Outlet has notably benefited due to its choice to capitalize on the chapter of one among its largest rivals, Massive Heaps.
Massive Heaps’ failure and Chapter 11 chapter allowed Ollie’s to amass a slate of its storefronts. Massive Heaps closures additionally diminished competitors at 290 of its 645 shops.
Alongside curiosity in a “treasure hunt” purchasing expertise and stretched budgets, Ollie’s Cut price Outlet finds itself in a main place to win prospects over the vacations and into 2026.
Ollie’s Cut price Outlet was based by Mark Butler, Morton Bernstein, Harry Coverman, and Oliver “Ollie” Rosenberg at Bernstein’s lumber yard in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1982. After visiting a Constructing 19 location in Massachusetts, Butler began the corporate primarily based on a easy premise that everybody in America loves a discount.
Ollie’s shops are stocked with closeout and overstock gadgets bought at a reduction and offered to prospects at decrease costs than these present in shops. It goals for a 40% gross margin. If it may possibly hit that focus on and considerably undercut costs at full-price shops, it is going to promote absolutely anything, together with cleaning soap, meals, toys, housewares, attire, and electronics.
Ollie’s Cut price Outlet is seeing extra foot visitors after rival Massive Heaps closed shops amid chapter.Shutterstock
The corporate, recognized for its quirky, comic-book-style advertising, has been deliberate about its development, slowly however constantly opening areas. It targeted on Pennsylvania shops earlier than coming into Maryland within the Nineties. Regardless of Rosenberg’s passing in 1996, the corporate steadily expanded its retailer depend below Butler’s management, reaching 20 areas by late 2000 and 36 shops by 2005, which lifted income to $150 million that 12 months.
2025: 645 areas Supply: Ollie’s FAQ
2020:388 areas Supply: Ollie’s 2020 10-Ok SEC submitting
2015:203 areas Supply: Ollie’s 2015 10-Ok
2011:100 areas Supply: Occasions Herald-File
2005: 36 areas Supply: Residents Voice
To produce its rising footprint, it consolidated its distribution at a big middle in York, Pennsylvania, in 2008. A second distribution middle was opened in 2014 in Georgia, one 12 months earlier than Ollie’s preliminary public providing on the inventory market.
Gross sales proceed to develop as Ollie’s opened extra shops in new markets. In 2017, it operated 268 shops with gross sales exceeding $1 billion.
In December 2019, Butler handed away, and former Chief Working Officer John Swygert took over as CEO. The corporate’s East Coast enlargement continued below Swygert, with Ollie’s retailer depend rising to 559 on the finish of 2024, producing $2.3 billion in annual income.
In February 2025, Swygert transitioned to govt chairman, clearing the best way for President Eric Van der Valk to imagine Ollie’s CEO title. Earlier than becoming a member of Ollie’s in 2021 as Chief Working Officer, he was president and COO of Christmas Tree Retailers, the place he’d labored for 15 years.
Massive Heaps was one among America’s largest low cost retailers, with 1,450 shops close to its peak in 2015. Nevertheless, a sequence of missteps that muddied its low cost retailer picture and saddled it with substantial debt took a toll, as Ollie’s and different rivals reduce into its market share.
The corporate, which was based in 1967 by Sol Shenk, was initially recognized for getting closeout auto elements (Shenk even purchased DeLorean Motors’ property throughout its chapter).
It advanced through the years to promote a variety of off-price merchandise, however in 2013, below newly put in CEO David Campisi, Massive Heaps made an ill-advised shift to promote non-closeout gadgets in its shops, leaving shoppers with a complicated value expertise.
Massive Heaps’ gross sales declined, notably after 2021, falling 14% in fiscal 2023 (ending February 3, 2024), 11% in 2022, and 1% in 2021. In its closing quarter earlier than declaring chapter on September 9, 2024, Massive Heaps reported year-to-date gross sales by the second quarter had fallen by 9.2% to $2.1 billion. It additionally $570 million in maturing short-term debt.
Jan. 1, 2025: A chapter court docket authorized the sale of 200‑400 Massive Heaps shops and as much as two distribution facilities to Selection Wholesalers, facilitated by Gordon Brothers. Supply: Reuters
Jan. 14, 2025: Gordon Brothers gives Massive Heaps retailer leases on the market nationwide (19,000 to 55,000 sq.‑foot properties). Supply: Gordon Brothers
Feb. 27, 2025: Ollie’s Cut price Outlet Holdings, Inc. introduced its acquisition of 40 Massive Heaps retailer leases from Gordon Brothers, bringing its complete of Massive Heaps‑derived leases to 63. Supply: Ollie’s Cut price Outlet Holdings
Massive Heaps’ restructuring amid chapter included the liquidation of many shops, creating an ideal alternative for Ollie’s Cut price Outlet.
Not like Massive Heaps, Ollie’s steadiness sheet was robust, with no significant long-term debt and lots of of tens of millions in money, regardless of its ongoing retailer opening program. The corporate leveraged its monetary power to amass 63 leases on Massive Heaps shops, buying 23 leases in 2024 and one other 40 leases in February 2025.
“These areas are the precise measurement, include favorable lease phrases, are situated in current and adjoining commerce areas, and have lengthy serviced worth acutely aware shoppers,” mentioned Ollie’s CEO van der Valk on the time.
The newly acquired shops bolstered its presence inside essentially the most engaging markets. On the identical time, the everlasting closure of many Massive Heaps areas offered a tailwind, resulting in elevated foot visitors at 290 Ollie’s shops in the course of the second quarter of 2025.
The mixture has accelerated Ollie’s income, with shops reopened below Ollie’s model rising quickly and same-store gross sales at current Ollie’s inside former Massive Heaps markets accelerating at a faster-than-normal tempo.
General, comparable retailer gross sales at shops open not less than one 12 months rose 5% within the second quarter, “pushed by a rise in transactions,” in accordance with Helm.
Ollie’s shops and advertising boast a vibe much like Dealer Joe’s, with old-timey promoting encouraging a treasure-hunt mentality amongst prospects trying to find “Good Stuff Low cost.”
Ollie’s Military membership totaled 15.1 million individuals on the finish of fiscal 2024, up 8% 12 months over 12 months. The corporate says members account for about 80% of gross sales at its shops, which may now be present in 34 states alongside the East Coast. The typical Ollie’s Military member spends 40% extra per go to than nonmembers.
“With so many retailers closing shops or going bankrupt prior to now 12 months, there is a chance to realize market share by increasing our footprint, buying new prospects and turning these prospects into loyal Ollie’s Military members,” mentioned van der Valk on the Q2 earnings name.
That is already occurring. Exiting the second quarter, Ollie’s Military loyalty members totaled 16.1 million, a ten.6% improve from final 12 months.
However it’s not solely development by Massive Heaps’ failure that is driving outcomes. Ollie has ramped up its natural new retailer development this 12 months, opening 54 shops in the course of the first six months, which is “4x the variety of shops we opened in the identical interval final 12 months,” in accordance with van der Valk.
The corporate sees alternatives arising from shifting buyer habits, forcing shops to reassess their footprints. The corporate is monitoring further retailer closures and bankruptcy-related alternatives, and it plans to keep up a cautious method to new retailer grand openings.
General, Ollie’s exited the second quarter, throughout which it opened 29 shops, with a goal of 85 new areas this 12 months, together with the Massive Lot shops. In 2026, it expects to exceed its 10% retailer development purpose once more.
The shop closures even have one other optimistic affect for Ollie’s — extra alternatives to purchase stock.
“There’s so many various sources of closeouts in any given quarter… Our mannequin thrives on disruption,” mentioned van der Valk. “The retail bankruptcies and retailer closures have actually resulted in further shopping for alternatives.”
Ollie’s can also be in search of further methods to spice up visits from Ollie’s Military members. It hosted an Ollie’s Day occasion within the second quarter, providing an unique member-only purchasing evening with promotions tailor-made to members.
“The reimagined occasion was an enormous success and exceeded all expectations. First and most significantly, we rewarded our Ollie’s Military members and bought an abundance of recent members. Second, the occasion was accretive to gross sales and earnings,” mentioned van der Valk.
The Ollie’s Days occasion added 1% to the off-price retailers’ comp retailer gross sales in Q2.
It plans the same Ollie’s Military Day with unique looking for members on Dec. 15.
And it isn’t simply that Ollie’s is profitable with lower- and middle-income consumers. It’s seeing development throughout all revenue ranges, together with higher-income households, as extra prospects shift their spending habits.
Finally, Ollie’s Cut price Outlet believes there’s room to function 950 shops in America, offering ample alternatives for additional development.
The corporate will present an replace on its progress throughout its third quarter earnings name, scheduled for Dec. 9.
Associated: Widespread TJMaxx rival stumbles as buyer habits shifts
This story was initially printed by TheStreet on Nov 29, 2025, the place it first appeared within the Investing part. Add TheStreet as a Most well-liked Supply by clicking right here.
