Bloomberg- Big Lots Inc., the largest U.S. seller of overstocked and discontinued items, has an online Wild and Wacky Find museum where customers can submit items they stumble upon while shopping at the company’s stores.
There’s Chick A Poo Organic plant food made from chicken droppings, Shower Buzz vibrating body soap and Woofy Pop chicken-flavored popcorn for dogs. While the goods make Big Lots fun for shoppers, the enjoyment is waning for investors, particularly hedge funds.
New management and a planned restructuring lured about 56 hedge funds to buy Big Lots beginning in June 2005, and the stock jumped 91 percent last year for the fifth-best gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. A third of those funds sold shares in the first quarter, and the stock has dropped 19 percent since the end of May.
