Southgate's Toys "R" Us Building Has Grown Up - Big Lots #4723 + Introducing Oakland County Retail!

 

This post will look at retail in Southgate, Wayne County, MI.

 

Children's Bargain Town USA / Toys "R" Us #9262 / Big Lots #4723

14333 Eureka Road, Southgate, MI

Driving distance and time from downtown Detroit: 15 miles, approx. 22 minutes

 

You've seen Big Lots' previous Southgate location, and today, we're taking you to their new home, but first, our usual building history.

In 1969, Children's Bargain Town USA opened this store as part of a large push into the Detroit market, although their tenancy here wound up becoming short-lived, as in 1971 the chain was acquired by Toys "R" Us and rebranded under their name not long after. Toys "R" Us remodeled the building twice - first in the early 1980s into their brown roof prototype, and again in the early 1990s into their rainbow entrance prototype, ensuring that the store would last all the way through to the chain's 2018 demise from their bankruptcy.

Other than housing Halloween stores for two fall seasons (2018 and 2019), the building thereafter remained empty until Big Lots acquired the building in 2021. As usual for the ongoing "Store of the Future" program, the interior was completely gutted, obliterating many Toys "R" Us relics in the process. The new Big Lots opened on June 9, 2021.

 

Interestingly enough, Big Lots left the Toys "R" Us exterior facade intact, other than the rainbow stripes and white exterior being stuccoed over in brown and the Big Lots logo plopped on it. As you read further down in this post, there's one other Toys "R" Us relic in this store, in an otherwise...

...100% modern Big Lots interior. Entering the store, this is the view that you encounter. Like in all "Store of the Future" locations, the entire center of the sales floor is taken up by the furniture department, which in recent years has become Big Lots' main emphasis.

 

Seasonal occupies the front right corner of the building, past the checkouts. Seasonal is another one of Big Lots' main "winnable" categories - the other two are housewares and food.

Proceeding down the right of the building towards the back, we reach the one area of the building that's still selling toys.

 

The far back actionway, photographed here in the grocery department.

 

Here's a closeup of the furniture department, looking towards the front of the store.

Not even the ceiling was left alone when Big Lots remodeled the building for their use, as it was given a fresh new coat of white paint.

 

Housed in the front left corner of the building is a sub-department of housewares -- specifically, yes, a retro-themed department named "The Lot", complete with 1980s aesthetic signage.

A much more broad view of the housewares area.

 

This is the only remaining Toys "R" Us relic in the interior. The protruding entryway is left over from the standard Toys "R" Us entryway design, which was in use as far back as the brown roof era.

To wrap up our tour of the store, here's photographic proof that Hostess Thrift Outlets has returned as a Big Lots store-within-a-store. Interestingly, there had been a standalone Hostess Thrift Outlet on Fort Street a block north of Eureka, a mile from this Big Lots, from 1986 (taking over a 1972-built Payless ShoeSource building) until Hostess temporarily went bankrupt in late 2012. That building is now home to a smoke shop.

However, we aren't yet done with this post, as we are proud to welcome our new sister blog, Oakland County Retail! Oakland County Retail will be the primary home for posts from our contributor DTW Retail, and covers virtually the same area as our blog. DTW Retail has already written some posts over on that blog, so check it out now, or at any time through the link at the very top of the sidebar on all of our posts!

Until next time...