Big Lots is conducting going-out-of-business sales at all its locations after a sale of the company fell through.

It's shaping up to be a bit of a blue Christmas for the staff of Lufkin's Big Lots store, who learned they would be losing their jobs when the discount chain on Thursday announced going-out-of-business sales at all remaining locations.

While the Lufkin store does not yet have a set date for its closure, employees have been told it will be around the end of February, assistant store manager Melissa Kellum said.

The looming closure is "very new to us," she said, referring to the 11 person team.

"It just came as a shock to us," she added, explaining that the Lufkin store "is very profitable, so when they said that it was closing, we knew that Big Lots was going under as a company."

The Columbus, Ohio-based retailer, which sells furniture, home decor and other items, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early September and said private equity firm Nexus Capital Management LP had agreed to acquire "substantially all of the company's assets." But on Thursday, the chain said it didn't anticipate completing the purchase agreement. It said it continues to work toward completing an alternative transaction with Nexus or another party.

Big Lots said its goal would be to complete a sale by early January. Discounts of up to 50% were being offered on the entire assortment of goods, according to the company's website, which announced all stores were closing.

The Lufkin location is offering sales on "mostly everything in the store with the exception of food -- it's not going to be marked down -- but all the home goods and toys are on sale," Kellum said.

The store is operating during special holiday hours right now, staying open until 11 p.m. today, Sunday and Monday. It will close as 6 p.m. Christmas Eve before resuming normal business hours after Christmas.

"And we'll keep running this store just the same, just moving everything out the door."

Each Thursday evening until the store goes out of business, "there will be more markdowns until everything is sold," Kellum said. "They'll go into effect Friday, but we'll do them Thursday evening."

With holiday shopping in full frenzy and discounts expected to drive more traffic to the store, Kellum offered one reminder to customers hoping to take advantage of the sales.

"They just have to understand that everybody's shopping at the same time and not to be so, you know ... Christmas-shoppy," she said with a laugh.