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In an effort to protect its status as a low-price leader, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet plans to invest $15 million toward lower prices. Some $10 million will come during the second half of the year, executives told analysts Wednesday. In fact, that could go higher, they said. “We build trust with customers by being the lowest price in the market on items every day,” CEO Eric van der Valk said during the conference call with analysts. “Promotional pricing — like high-low pricing, excessive coupons — we believe for us erodes customer trust and damages our value proposition, which we take very seriously.” The retailer balances price and margin “very carefully,” he also said. The company’s Q2 gross margin, including a 380-basis point boost from tariff refunds, expanded by 360 basis points to 43.5%. Lower supply chain costs also helped, according to a Wednesday press release. Unfavorable weather events, consumer caution and competition from deep price cuts at other retailers all contributed to a comparable sales miss in the period. Store comps dropped nearly 2%, though new stores drove net sales up more than 9% to $741.3 million. As far as which of those challenges provided the biggest pressure point, “it's hard to parse out the difference between weather, the consumer and the elevated promotional environment,” Chief Financial Officer Robert Helm said. The retailer opened 14 net new stores after closing one that suffered storm damage, ending Q2 with 686 stores in 36 states, an increase of nearly 12%. That helped boost its loyalty membership by almost 13% to over 18 million. Ollie’s last year took over the leases of several Big Lots stores, after taking over about a dozen 99 Cents Only stores in 2024. Executives painted the quarter’s comparable sales miss, and 2026 more generally, as an aberration, given the retailer’s comp record over the past decade, with the exception of the pandemic era. “I think that this is a weird year, and that we'll be back to operating like Ollie’s in ’27 and beyond,” Helm said. For 2026, though, the company lowered its outlook in a few areas. Ollie’s now expects store comps to be flat or edge up only slightly, down from its previous expectation of 2% growth. The retailer also scaled back its net sales growth guidance somewhat, but still plans on opening 75 new stores.
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