New Tenant Announced For Former Xpect Discounts Building in East Haven

By Jack Kramer, Patch correspondent

EAST HAVEN, CT — It has been nine months since Xpect Discounts closed its Frontage Road in East Haven store but soon there will be a new tenant occupying the space.

Big Lots, Inc, an American retail company that has over 1,400 stores in 48 states, including 13 in Connecticut, will be opening a store in 2017.

Mayor Joseph Maturo said he is “very pleased’’ that leasing agent C.A. White was able to “attract a company with a reputation like Big Lots to replace Xpect Discounts in East Haven.”

“Big Lots is similar in nature to Xpect, which should be well received by the residents of East Haven who enjoyed shopping at Xpect,” added Maturo.

The exact date the store opens could not be determined. Maturo said it would be “sometime in 2017.”

Big Lots has 13 other stores in Connecticut, including ones in Wallingford, North Haven, Milford and Derby

Big Lots is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.

Its department stores sell a wide variety of merchandise, including packaged food and beverages, toys, furniture, clothing, housewares, and small electronics, much of which is closed out or overstocked merchandise.

Many of the items in these stores sell out quickly: in the store one day, but gone the next, with no replenishments coming. Many other items, such as foodstuffs, are stocked continually.

In many cases, Big Lots uses buildings formerly occupied by other stores.

The East Haven Xpect store, which closed at the end of March of this year, was one of the last ones to operate in Connecticut.

More than 60 employees at the East Haven store lost their jobs.

The chain’s North Haven store, which was on Universal Drive, closed in July 2013.

Before that, XPect closed its Derby location in April 2012.