LW Stores, Inc. is a retailer that liquidates consumer merchandise through 94 outlets across Canada and three outlets in the United States. The retailer also provides store-closure sales management and solves asset recovery problems in a professional manner for the financial services industry, insurance companies, manufacturers and other organizations. LW Stores, Inc. was known as Liquidation World, Inc. until 2010. The chain has stores in the Canadian provinces of Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

 and Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

. It has been a subsidiary of Big Lots

Big Lots

Big Lots, Inc. is a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues well over $4 billion.Its department stores focus mainly on selling closeout and overstock merchandise. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio, USA and currently operates over 1,400 stores in 47 states...

 since 2011.

History

LW Stores was founded as Liquidation World in 1986 with the opening of its first store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The chain has since grown to be the largest liquidator in Canada, with more than 1,200 employees in outlets and offices across Canada. The company began operating stores in the United States in the early 1990s. Most U.S. stores were opened in sold to Liquidation World from bankrupt retailers, most notably Ernst Home Centers, in which several former Ernst stores were acquired by the chain in the late 1990s. By 2007, the company shut all but three of its U.S. stores due to declining sales. The final American store, located in Spokane, Washington, was closed in April 2010 after fifteen years in business.