Retail lessons from Ollie’s Covid & Post-Covid Playbook: Why Discipline Won

Ollie's Bargain Outlet, a national closeout retailer known for buying excess inventory at deep discounts, has quietly and surprisingly had a successful past few years, navigating COVID and post-COVID turbulence smoothly and emerging stronger than many of their competitors. While countless retailers continue to get swept up in the current wave of closures, Ollie's isn't just surviving—it's expanding.

According to the company’s most recent financial report (released 8/28/25), their second-quarter net sales increased by 17.5%, and they opened 29 new stores, growing their footprint to 613 locations, which is nearly 17% more than they had just a year ago. As their President and CEO Eric van der Valk put it, they’re “operating with the wind in [their] sails.”

So, how are they doing this? How are they opening 29 new stores when so many others are closing? And more importantly, what can we learn from them to keep your retail business resilient in unpredictable times? Let’s take a look at five lessons we at MASF have identified as the keys to their success—and how you can apply them.

1: Stay Consistent—Stay Strong

While plenty of retailers have spent the past few years chasing new categories, experimenting with trendy product lines, or trying to reinvent themselves on the fly, Ollie’s took the opposite approach. They didn’t drift into identity crises; instead, they stayed rooted in the same model that built their business: buy cheap, sell cheap. That consistency, especially during a chaotic period, became a competitive advantage. Customers always knew what they were getting, and Ollie’s never made the mistake of trying to be something it wasn’t.

The Lesson: In a storm, it’s not reinvention that wins—it’s reliability. During times of turmoil, customers aren’t looking for a retail store selling products that are new and untested; they want a steady hand they can count on. Sticking to your core identity keeps trust intact and gives customers a sense of security.

2: Strategic Timing

During the pandemic and its aftermath, retailers everywhere were making rapid, reactive moves. Ollie’s, on the other hand, opted for a slower, more deliberate approach. They didn’t lunge at every closing store or rush into deals just because they were available. Instead, they watched the market carefully. When bankruptcies created ideal openings—locations that genuinely matched their pre-pandemic, established formula—they moved decisively. Every move was intentional, focused on strengthening their footprint rather than expanding it blindly as opportunities arose.

The Lesson: Grow smart. Smart growth happens when you move at the right moment, not the earliest one. A good thing to watch for is when the market misprices assets. That’s where the real opportunity sits. If you stay patient, stay observant, and wait for the right window, you can make moves that strengthen your business instead of stretching it thin.

3: Culture of Discipline

Ollie's built its success on a focused, disciplined culture that stayed consistent even as it transitioned from a private company to a public one. They never tried to present themselves as a department store or expand into categories that didn't fit their model. Their focus remained narrow, practical, and intentional. This gave them a real advantage over competitors who stretched themselves thin chasing trends or “growth at any cost” strategies that ultimately weakened their foundations.

The Lesson: Pressure reveals culture. If a company’s culture is scattered or reactive, pressure exposes those cracks fast. But if practical discipline undergirds that culture, resilience follows. A steady foundation helps a business stay focused and stable when conditions get unpredictable.

4: Play the Long Game

When pandemic-era stimulus and unusual shopping patterns temporarily boosted retail sales, many companies treated that surge like a permanent shift. They expanded too quickly, overestimated demand, or took risks that only made sense during a short-term spike. Ollie’s didn’t fall into that trap. Their leadership treated COVID cash as unexpected noise, not a new normal, and they stayed focused on their long-term expansion plan. Instead of treating temporary highs as the basis for long-term momentum, they kept moving at the pace their model was built for.

The Lesson: Don’t mistake a rising tide for your own rowing. When short-term lifts appear, stick to your map. If you stay grounded in a long-term plan rather than chasing temporary spikes, you avoid making decisions that won’t hold up once the surge fades.

5: Keep It Neutral, Keep It Broad

In an era when many brands have found themselves pulled into cultural or political debates, Ollie’s stayed focused on retail, not rhetoric. They didn’t take public stances, join ideological battles, or position themselves as a voice in national conversations. It may feel like a risky approach, since some customers prefer the retail companies they support to share their views, but Ollie’s results show a different reality: neutrality is often the safest strategy. Alienating part of your customer base is the real risk. By avoiding that, Ollie’s kept their audience broad, consistent, and loyal. Their stores remained a place anyone could walk into without feeling pushed toward a viewpoint, and that stability paid off.

The Lesson: Neutrality is strategy, not weakness. Avoiding heated and quickly-changing conversations keeps the focus on your business and prevents you from pushing away parts of your customer base.

The Bottom Line: Discipline

After looking at these five keys, one thing should stand out above everything else: discipline. Whether it comes from staying consistent instead of reinventing yourself, waiting for the right opportunities, or looking past temporary surges and sticking to a long-term plan, the common thread is simple. Every one of these choices requires discipline. Ollie’s stayed disciplined when many of their competitors didn’t, and that’s one of the biggest reasons they’re now outperforming them.

And while we’re no longer in the chaos of COVID, today’s market is still full of unpredictable shifts. At MASF, we’re here to remind you that staying the course matters just as much now as it did then. No matter how that looks for your business, if you identify the foundations you need to keep strong and stay committed to them, you can build the same kind of resilience that’s helping Ollie’s thrive.