Ollie's Bargain Outlet Opens March 18 at Grand Traverse Mall

Ollie's Bargain Outlet will open its first Traverse City location this Wednesday, March 18, in the former TJ Maxx space at Grand Traverse Mall, 3200 South Airport Road. The Pennsylvania-based discount chain made the announcement March 10, promising shoppers savings of up to 70% off on brand-name food, housewares, flooring, books, clothing, bed and bath products, and toys.

"We've got items of all descriptions...and some beyond description!" the company wrote in its grand-opening announcement, which also advertises the store's full range including electronics, sporting goods, hardware, health and beauty products, and automotive supplies.

The opening comes more than a year after Garfield Township planning commissioners tabled Ollie's initial application on Feb. 14, 2025. The sticking point was the company's plan to wall off the store's interior mall entrance and route all customer traffic through a new exterior door. Commission Chair Chris DeGood warned at the time that doing so could trigger a "domino of changes" in how the mall functions, and the board asked staff to push Ollie's toward a different design. Township Planning Director John Sych noted that retail tenant changes at Grand Traverse Mall don't ordinarily require planning commission review, but the proposed exterior entrance was enough to trigger a site plan review, similar to the process Dunham's Sports went through when it came to the mall in 2015. Whether Ollie's ultimately modified its entrance design to satisfy the township's concerns is not documented in publicly available materials; the company's March 10 announcement simply confirmed the March 18 opening date without addressing the interior access question.

Ollie's arrival in Traverse City fits into a broader national expansion the chain has been pursuing since Big Lots filed for bankruptcy in 2024. Ollie's purchased roughly 40 former Big Lots locations at auction, converting many into new discount stores and capitalizing on the wave of vacant big-box retail space the collapse left behind. The Traverse City store is one of at least six new Ollie's locations scheduled to open across the country in March alone, joining new stores in Jacksboro, Tennessee; Conway, Arkansas; Athens, Tennessee; and La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The chain, which calls itself "America's largest retailer of closeout merchandise and excess inventory," operates hundreds of locations selling overstock goods at deep discounts. Its storefronts are recognizable by a large orange sign featuring a cartoon character and the tagline "Good Stuff Cheap.