Bank of America sees off-price retailers winning as resale grows

Bank of America’s latest read on retail points to a split that Big Lots workers know well from the sales floor: shoppers are chasing value in more places, but off-price still has the clearest claim on the deal-hunting customer. Department stores are losing share not only to mass merchants and off-price chains, but increasingly to apparel resale too. Even so, Bank of America sees off-price as the real winner because inflation is pushing consumers toward whatever feels cheapest, fastest, and most like a deal they can take home now.

The numbers explain why resale is getting attention without changing the basic math of discount retail. Bank of America Institute said the U.S. secondhand apparel market should reach $78.8 billion by 2030 and grew nearly four times faster than the broader retail clothing market in 2025. Bank of America card data showed secondhand fashion transactions per household growing nine times faster than secondhand spending in March, while consumers across income groups were spending less per purchase since April 2025. ThredUp’s 2026 Resale Report, released April 2, projected a global secondhand market of $393 billion by 2030 and said Gen Z and Millennials will drive more than 70% of U.S. resale growth through 2030. The message for store teams is not that resale is replacing discount chains. It is that shoppers have become even more surgical about price, and they expect the store to make the value obvious fast.

That matters at Big Lots because the company has already been through a major reset. Big Lots filed voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on September 9, 2024, and entered a sale agreement with Nexus Capital Management LP the same day. In January 2025, Big Lots closed a deal that allowed Variety Wholesalers to acquire 219 Big Lots stores out of bankruptcy, with the company saying Variety Wholesalers could also employ Big Lots associates at acquired stores, distribution centers and certain corporate roles. Variety Wholesalers said the first reopened Big Lots locations launched on April 10, 2025, with nine stores in six states, including Mount Sterling, Kentucky, Metairie, Louisiana, Pearl, Mississippi, Asheboro, North Carolina, Clarksville, Tennessee and Roanoke, Virginia.

For workers, the practical takeaway is straightforward. Shoppers are responding to clear price edges, quick wins and a sense that merchandise is changing often enough to reward a repeat visit. That puts pressure on associates to sell the story behind closeouts, not just ring them up. It also raises the value of clean presentation, fast replenishment and simple comparisons that show why today’s item is the better buy than waiting for something else online or in a resale app. Lisa Seigies said the company was bringing “the Big Lots brand back to life with more deals, famous brands, and a new apparel department for the whole family,” and that line captures the strategy now facing the store floor: make the value visible, make the assortment feel fresh and make every shift reinforce why Big Lots still belongs in the bargain shopper’s routine.