Big Lots workers face new safety rules, rising mental health strain

Big Lots entered bankruptcy with 1,392 stores, more than 27,000 employees, and about $4.7 billion in 2023 revenue. Workers now face the fallout of that collapse alongside a retail safety climate that treats workplace violence planning as a basic duty, not an extra. On a Big Lots shift now, the physical hazards and the emotional wear come from the same source: a store under pressure.

New York has turned violence prevention into a work rule

The clearest signal comes from New York’s Retail Worker Safety Act. Covered retail employers with 10 or more employees in New York must adopt a workplace violence prevention policy and provide retail workplace violence prevention training. That training must be interactive and given upon hire, and it has to happen during paid work time.

The law goes further for bigger stores. Employers with 50 or more retail employees must provide the training every year, while employers with 49 or fewer retail employees must do it every two years. Beginning January 1, 2027, retail employers in New York with 500 or more employees must also provide a silent response button for emergencies and train employees on how to use it.

For Big Lots employees, the useful question is not whether a policy exists on paper. It is whether the store can explain, in plain language, how an aggressive customer gets handled, who takes over, how a worker calls for help, and what happens if the situation escalates fast.

The mental health strain is part of the hazard list

Mental Health First Aid places retail in the bottom 10 percent of industries for workplace mental health, and more than 80 percent of retail workers report that their wellbeing has declined in recent years. The stressors it flags are familiar to anyone who has worked a register, a stockroom, or a front end during a rush: constant customer confrontation, unpredictable schedules, high accountability with low authority, presenteeism, exposure to threats, and limited on-site HR support.

The emotional side of retail safety cannot be separated from the physical one. A store with clear de-escalation procedures, predictable staffing, and a manager who actually listens is usually safer and less draining than a store where everyone improvises through every confrontation. The same understaffing that makes the floor messy can also make a worker feel trapped with an angry customer and no backup.

Big Lots workers know that pressure in a different way now because the company’s bankruptcy made uncertainty part of the job. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 9, 2024, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. At the time, Big Lots said it had substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.

Kroll Restructuring Administration lists Former BL Stores, Inc., formerly Big Lots, Inc., and its subsidiaries in the voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings initiated on that date in Delaware. Big Lots later announced plans to close all remaining stores after a failed sale process, and the chain had about 963 stores left when going-out-of-business sales were announced. For workers, that meant the pressure of the shift was happening alongside layoff anxiety, shrinking schedules, and constant questions about what store would still be open next.

At the Columbus distribution center, affected workers were to receive pay and benefits through November 3, 2024, under a WARN notice.

What to do on the next shift

The best move for a Big Lots worker is to treat safety and mental strain as one issue, not two separate complaints. Know the escalation steps before a customer blows up, report hazards as soon as you spot them, ask for help early instead of waiting until you are overwhelmed, and use the resources the company gives you. If your store has a workplace violence prevention policy, it should tell you who to contact, how to document an incident, and what support follows a threat or confrontation.

A practical checklist for tomorrow looks like this:

• Ask where the workplace violence prevention policy is kept and who is responsible for it on your shift.
• Find out how customer escalation is handled, especially when a cashier, stocker, or manager needs backup.
• If your location uses an emergency button or a silent response procedure, make sure you know exactly where it is and how to trigger it.
• Report understaffing, blocked exits, broken fixtures, or other hazards before they become part of an incident.