Big Lots, the discount retail chain known for carrying a wide assortment of goods, is closing more than 50 stores in California amid flagging sales that have thrown the chain’s future into question.

In a June filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it expects to close 35 to 40 stores in 2024. However, according to closure notices on individual store websites, the actual number will be higher.

Big Lots currently operates 109 stores in California, the second highest in the country behind Texas. There are about 1,400 Big Lots nationwide. The chain is known for offering an extensive and somewhat eclectic collection of items at low prices, including brand-name goods and discount products.

“Our customers may be on a tight budget,” the Big Lots website says, “or they may just enjoy our treasure-hunt atmosphere.”

Big Lots, however, has been struggling. The company reported a net loss of $205 million in the quarter ending May 4 — similar to the $206-million loss it posted for the same period last year. Net sales of around $1 billion in the quarter marked a 10% decrease compared with the same period last year.

Those losses, the rate at which the company has spent down cash reserves in recent years, and gloomy projections for the future “raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern,” the company wrote in the filing.

Shares of the company closed Monday at $1.04, a nearly 87% decline from the start of the year.

Inflation and rising costs of goods have put pressure on retailers as many customers, especially those on a tight budget who may be drawn to discount chains such as Big Lots, limit their spending.

This year, California-based 99 Cents Only Stores announced the closure of all 371 of its locations, citing inflation and changes in consumer demand.

“We missed our sales goals due largely to a continued pullback in consumer spending by our core customers, particularly in high ticket discretionary items,” Big Lots President Bruce Thorn said in a statement. “We remain focused on managing through the current economic cycle by controlling the controllables.”

According to KTLA-TV, these are the California Big Lots stores marked for closure.

•Anaheim: 1670 W. Katella Ave.; Anaheim, CA 92802
•Anaheim: 6336 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road; Anaheim, CA 92807
•Atascadero: 2240 El Camino Real; Atascadero, CA 93422
•Atwater: 1085 Bellevue Road; Atwater, CA, 95301
•Bakersfield: 1211 Olive Drive; Bakersfield, CA 93308
•Bakersfield: 2621 Fashion Place; Bakersfield, CA 93306
•Beaumont: 1782 E 2nd Street; Beaumont, CA 92223
•Camarillo: 353 Carmen Drive; Camarillo, CA 93010
•Santa Clarita/Canyon County: 19331 Soledad Canyon Road; Canyon County, CA 91351
•Chico: 1927 E 20th Street; Chico, CA 95928
•Concord: 2060 Monument Boulevard; Concord, CA 94520
•Corona: 740 N Main Street; Corona, CA 92880
•Culver City: 5587 Sepulveda Boulevard; Culver City, CA 90230
•Delano: 912 County Line Road; Delano, CA 93215
•El Cajon: 1085 E Main Street; El Cajon, CA 92021
•Fairfield: 1500 Oliver Road; Fairfield, CA 94534
•Folsom: 9500 Greenback Lane, Ste 22; Folsom, CA 95630
•Fresno: 7370 N Blackstone Avenue; Fresno, CA 93650
•Gilroy: 360 E 10th Street; Gilroy, CA 95020
•Hercules: 1551 Sycamore; Hercules, CA 94547
•Indio: 42225 Jackson Street, Ste B; Indio, CA 92203
•La Mesa: 6145 Lake Murray Boulevard; La Mesa, CA 91942
•Livermore: 4484 Las Positas Road; Livermore, CA 94551
•Lompoc: 1009 N H Street, Ste M; Lompoc, CA 93436
•Long Beach: 2238 N Bellflower Boulevard; Long Beach, CA 90815
•Los Banos: 951 W Pacheco Boulevard; Los Banos, CA 93635
•Manteca: 1321 West Yosemite, Avenue; Manteca, CA 95337
•Merced: 665 Fairfield Drive; Merced, CA 95348
•Milpitas: 111 Ranch Drive; Milpitas, CA 95035
•Modesto: 3900 Sisk Road; Modesto, CA 95356
•Oceanside: 1702 Oceanside Boulevard; Oceanside, CA 92054
•Ontario: 4430 Ontario Mills Parkwasy; Ontario, CA 91764
•Placerville: 47 Fair Lane; Placerville, CA 95667
•Rancho Santa Margarita: 30501 Avenida De Las Flores; Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688
•Redlands: 810 Tri City Center; Redlands, CA 92374
•Riverside: 2620 Canyon Springs Parkway; Riverside, CA 92507
•Rohnert Park: 565 Rohner Park Expressway; Rohner Park, CA 94928
•Sacramento: 6630 Valley Hi Drive; Sacramento, CA 95823
•Sacramento: 8700 La Riviera Drive; Sacramento, CA 95826
•Salinas: 370 Northridge Mall; Salinas, CA 93906
•San Bernardino: 499 W Orange Show Road; San Bernardino, CA 92408
•Santa Clara: 3735 El Camino Real; Santa Clara, CA 95051
•Santa Maria: 1417 S Broadway; Santa Maria, CA 93454
•Santa Paula: 568 W Main Street, Ste B; Santa Paula, CA 93060
•Santa Rosa: 2055 Mendocino Avenue; Santa Rosa, CA 95401
•Simi Valley: 1189 Simi Town Center Way; Simi Valley, CA 93065
•Stockton: 2720 Country Club Boulevard; Stockton, CA 95204
•Temecula: 27411 Ynez Road: Temcula, CA 92591
•Tracy: 2681 N Tracy Boulevard; Tracy, CA 95376
•Turlock: 1840 Countryside Drive; Turlock, CA 95380
•Ukiah: 225 Orchard Plz; Ukiah, CA 95482
•Vacaville: 818 Alamo Drive; Vacaville, CA 95688
•Visalia: 2525 S Monney Boulevard; Visalia, CA 93277
•Woodland: 52 W Court Street; Woodland, CA 95695

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will take a new route home beginning next year after the company announced it will move its splashdowns back to the waters off California next year.

Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said Sunday on X that the city’s port would be the new home for SpaceX’s recovery operations.

“Excited to share a Space Beach update! Long Beach will be the new home to @SpaceX’s Dragon recovery vessel as their West Coast Recovery Operations team based out of the @portoflongbeach will welcome back both @NASA and other private astronauts who are returning to Earth from orbit and beyond,” Richardson wrote.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced he is moving the headquarters of both the Hawthorne-based SpaceX and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to Texas — citing several criticisms he has of California and doing business in San Francisco.

Moving the splashdown sites from off of the Florida coast to California was necessary to address concerns over debris from Dragon that has crashed to earth on previous missions.

The Dragon, which has carried astronauts and cargo into space on more than three dozen flights since 2012, has two main sections — the capsule that carries people and cargo, and an expendable part called the trunk.

In 2019, SpaceX moved the Dragon’s splashdowns from the west coast to Florida, a move that allowed “teams to unpack and deliver critical cargo to NASA teams in Florida more efficiently and transport crews more quickly to Kennedy Space Center,” the company said in a statement on its website. As part of that move, the company developed a new way of dealing with the trunk, detaching it from the capsule while it was still in orbit. Engineers calculated that the trunk would completely burn up as it fell from orbit and through the earth’s atmosphere. However, pieces of the trunk have been found in Australia and elsewhere, forcing SpaceX back to the drawing board.

When splashdowns in the Pacific begin next year, the trunk will remain attached to the capsule until after the spacecraft has left orbit, allowing SpaceX to control its descent into the ocean away from land, the company said.

For the first time since it was founded more than half a century ago, Southwest Airlines will assign seats — a shift that will allow the low-fare, no-frills company to meet evolving customer preferences and charge more money for premium seats.

The Dallas-based airline also will start to offer overnight, red-eye flights, starting on Valentine’s Day 2025, in five markets, including Los Angeles, Baltimore and Nashville.

Southwest had for years touted its model of open seating as the “ultimate expression of its founding ethos: to make air travel affordable and accessible for everyone.”

“You can sit anywhere you want — just like at church,” flight attendants told passengers.

But Southwest said it had listened to customers who sought more options, often desiring more comfortable, premium seats when they took longer flights. When customers decided to switch to a competitor from Southwest, the airline said, their No. 1 complaint was dissatisfaction with open seating.

“The research is clear and indicates that 80% of Southwest customers, and 86% of potential customers, prefer an assigned seat,” the airline said in a statement. “By moving to an assigned seating model, Southwest expects to broaden its appeal and attract more flying from its current and future customers.”

Currently, Southwest passengers are grouped into boarding positions based on the order of check-in, with some exceptions. This means those who check in for their flight early are rewarded by being able to get on the plane — and snag a preferred seat — before other passengers.

It’s a practice that many budget-conscious, but still comfort-inclined Southwest fliers appreciated.

In 2006, the airline abandoned a plan to assign seats after a trial run and customer surveys revealed that travelers preferred open seating. Keeping open seating was also more efficient. Assigned seating increased boarding time by one to four minutes, the airline said at the time.

The change will enable the company to make more for premium seats. Southwest said it was working on an updated cabin design, with roughly one-third of seats offering extended legroom.

“Although our unique open seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice — at the right time — for our Customers, our People, and our Shareholders,” Bob Jordan, Southwest’s president, chief executive and vice chairman of the board, said in a statement.

Southwest did not specify when the seat changes will go into effect. Some Southwest fans took to social media to decry the move to assigned seats, saying that it was enough to make them abandon the budget-friendly brand. Others said they always hated having to hunt for an open seat.

But at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, many passengers seemed unfazed by the policy change.

Jim Kingsley navigated a luggage cart stacked high with bags for him and his family, having just arrived in Los Angeles after a long flight from Minneapolis.

It’s Southwest’s inexpensive checked bag policy, not seating, that has earned his business. “Otherwise we’d be carrying all these,” he joked.

Southwest, he said, seems safer and friendlier than other airlines. It doesn’t surprise customers with unexpected fees and offers flights at what Kingsley said is a good value for his family.

“As far as airlines go, Southwest has got it going on,” he said.

The company, long one of the nation’s most profitable airlines, has struggled financially in recent years. Costs — including wages, goods and maintenance — have risen across the airline industry in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The problem for Southwest is that its revenue has been much slower to rise than for its competitors, said Edward Russell, a freelance transport and aviation writer.

“Airlines that offer premium products and large loyalty programs including American, United and Delta have done much better,” he said. “The changes we’re seeing from Southwest are basically an attempt to boost revenue to keep up with the rise in costs.”

Estimates from Wall Street analysts indicate that assigned seating could result in as much as $2 billion per year in additional revenue for the airline. This comes at a time when Southwest has been grappling with pressure from investors to boost revenue, Russell said.

On Thursday, Southwest reported that its profit in the second quarter of 2024 dropped more than 46% from a year earlier to $367 million.

“Our second-quarter performance was impacted by both external and internal factors and fell short of what we believe we are capable of delivering,” Jordan said.

“We are taking urgent and deliberate steps to mitigate near-term revenue challenges and implement longer-term transformational initiatives that are designed to drive meaningful top and bottom-line growth.”

It’s unlikely that the seating switch-up will dramatically raise prices for travelers, but those who want to sit at the front of the plane or enjoy the view at a window seat should expect to pay more as they do on other airlines, Russell said.

Tomi Muñoz and Steven Romero, who flew Southwest from Denver to Los Angeles for a vacation Thursday morning, said they’d like to see the airline maintain low ticket prices. The frequent travelers said they’ve never had an issue with the open seating policy.

“It depends on who you are as a traveler,” said Muñoz, 22, adding that anxious fliers might get some relief by knowing exactly where they’re going to be sitting on the plane.

But Muñoz and Romero don’t worry about that.

“We end up sitting with each other anyway,” Romero, 23, said.

Destinee Gary, 25, said Southwest’s current seating arrangement enables her to avoid loud groups or potentially disruptive children during the flight. Gary, who has flown only once before, prefers to scope out the situation on a plane before committing to a spot.

But she said an increase in ticket prices would be the real deal-breaker.

“If it costs more,” she asked, “then why not fly American?”