JCP is closing 138 stores (list included) and there’s a video of CEO talking about what’s next.
CNBC Story and Videos

For those who don’t know, Marv Ellison took over JCP in August 2015 when he left Home Depot where he was VP in charge of U.S. stores. Since then JCP has been going downhill imo. That they are now closing 138 stores seems to support that.

Marv is trying to turn JCP into Home Depot Lite, and it ain’t gonna work imo. See video in story.

Soon after Marv took over, JCP started selling appliances. JCP abandoned the appliance business 33 years ago.

Now, according to Marv, JCP is getting into the “home services” business. That is, selling water heater and installations, window blind installations, simple bath remodels, and who knows what else.

Sounds like it’s because the majority of JCP customers are female, and X% of them are homeowners. I guess he thinks they don’t go to HD and Lowes.

So, JCP is dying because sales are declining, due to fewer and fewer customers buying less and less, so let’s close 138 stores, and then hope we can convince the remaining fewer and fewer female customers that JCP is the go-to place for appliances and home services.

I don’t see this working at all.

The JCP near me is one of the one's closing, and I do like JCP’s St. John’s Bay flannel shirts, so maybe I’ll stock up on those while I can.

Who's next, SEARS? Or, are they dead, already?

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Who's next, SEARS? Or, are they dead, already?

Sears had three great brands to hold onto that would have transitioned their business into a new phase. Instead, they are selling those off and trying to keep their generic brick and mortar business alive.

Good friend of mine got caught up in the first round of layoffs a few years ago. She worked at the HQ in DFW area.
It sure doesn't look good for them, does it?

Such is the evolution of business.
Sad in a way but it is a fact of business life.
I was looking back at all the stores that closed when I was in the Audio/Electronics business and I have seen a lot of friends, associates, and business contacts go away.
But JC Penny is/was a higher profile entity.
Think about how many restaurants, bars, or other small businesses that come and go?
It is not easy and of course the Internet changed everything.
At least we have a President now that respects the business effort ~ sorry about bringing politics into it.

Another victim of Amazon.

The dollar stores have more stock than the JC Penney and Sears stores in our mall. Lots of empty space in both. Don't see either lasting much longer.

JC Penny trying to ride a one trick pony.

I didn't understand why they were still in business in the 80s.

When your customer demographic is 70 year old ladies, the future is not bright.

Death Throws are on Aisle 11

Jethros are in Automotive

Well shit, their Arizona jeans are the only ones that fit me right.

quote:

Originally posted by jcat:
Another victim of Amazon.

I think you have it backwards.

I think that the decline in the quality of the customer expirence at sears, Jc penny's, etc are what allowed amazon to succeed.

I would much rather buy something I can hold in my hand first and I want a helpful, knowledgeable person to assist me. For years now the people working at these stores, if you can find someone, are clueless about the products they carry and inventory has been lacking.

I got tired of being told that they don't have what I want in stock but they can order it for me. Screw you, I know how to use the internet myself and now I just save the initial trip and check amazon.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Death Throws are on Aisle 11

Jethros are in Automotive

Aisle 11. Good one.

quote:

Originally posted by jcat:
Another victim of Amazon.

Perhaps, but my impression is that most people still buy their clothes in stores, and it seems that whenever I'm in a department store, I'm shopping for clothes. I can't remember the last time I was in a JC Penney though.

How will the shopping experience ever be the same without being sprayed in the face with stinkin' Estee Lauder par-fumes

Department stores will be extinct within 10-years. There's many reasons, biggest of course is the changing consumer habits, in short, the internet has taken over as the main purchasing portal. Discount chains like Target, Walmart, Khols do a better job with their house brands and promotions. From the vendor-side, doing business with department stores is a money loosing proposition for all but the biggest of brands. Not only do they want to purchase your product at a reduced rate right-off the bat, their vendor requirement are so onerous that you'll spend more money preping and shipping to their specs than the actual value of the product, they want additional $$$ so that they can print their Sunday ads along with having a hedge of $$$ in-case they have to mark-down your product...within a week of hitting the sales floor. Macy's is closing half their stores, Nordstrom recently announced they're closing a bunch of low-performers, Dillards is loosing brands, Lord & Taylor closed a bunch of locations a couple of years ago...times are a changing.

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:
I would much rather buy something I can hold in my hand first and I want a helpful, knowledgeable person to assist me. For years now the people working at these stores, if you can find someone, are clueless about the products they carry and inventory has been lacking.

This ^^^^^

My wife: "So-and-so doesn't carry <whatever> any more." Me: "Amazon will have it."

And Amazon almost inevitably does have it. These stores haven't figured out that if you have fifty variations on the same thing, and no shelf space for variation, you lose walk-throughs.

It finally got so bad that my wife and I have not been on a local shopping trip in ages.

SpinZone nailed it.

Shop online heavily now, almost exclusively. It was not a change that happened by preference.

JCP used to be a real department store, even selling tools and performing automotive services like, for example, Monkey Wards Montgomery Ward ... which died circa 2000. Too bad.

I wonder how much of Macy's overexpansion in the early 2000s hurt malls over all. I know of at least one mall that opened in 1997 imploded because when Macy's bought Marshall Fields and Lazarus, almost all the anchors for that mall became Macys. And when I walked through it in 2005, it was a ghost town.

Looking at the list in the OP, the malls where JCP is closing in Michigan were never big malls anyway. And some there were larger malls nearby.