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JC Penney to close 140 stores, eliminate 6000 jobs

posted 8 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

JC Penney announced yesterday it will close 130-140 locations nationwide by the summer, eliminating 6000 positions - many including managers and full time workers - to better position itself in the changing retail world. They did not disclose locations yet, but said they would be in 'lower tiered' malls (re: those without a Nordstrom or Saks for an anchor store), and would publish a list in a few weeks.

JC Penney employees should not worry - America has been promised 'millions' of high paying jobs in America over the next few years from Trump.

[–] Fishgottaswim (6) 8 years ago

Bummer.

Not that I'm much of a shopper, but there's a strip-like mall in my area that lost its middle. Penney's & Belks were the only 2 left standing - the anchors on opposite ends.

Meanwhile, the county is felling trees & wiping out acres & acres of woodlands because they've approved building of NEW mini-malls & Dollar Generals & leaving these skeleton shells behind - INCLUDING a supermarket mini-mall. We had a wipe out of acres & acres of trees, a new Food Lion for about 2 years, then it closed. The take out Chinese store is the only thing left there in that shell - with 300+ parking spaces.

[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

That is going to be the major problem for decades to come - what is going to happen to all these malls built in the 60s-90s once they all fold up? Malls can't survive without anchor stores - and when you have 2 -4 empty anchor stores, you have dead real estate. With Macy's, Penney's, and Sears doing major shut-downs this year, I have a feeling a good percentage of malls will lose all their anchors.

Trump is going to revitalize the 'factories', so he promised. What's he going to do with acres of empty cement blocks?

[–] fishgot2swim (1) 8 years ago

Someone is profiting. We've got a building boom in my neck of the woods & we have since about a year after that pesky global financial collapse that the Rethugs in the area still blame on Obama. This means that from about 2010 on, people in the construction, plumbing, roofing, tiling, retail, insurance around here are EMPLOYED, BUSY, THRIVING.

But they're still saying that Obama tanked the economy. These are adults with the brains of gnats.

[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

Right now, in a 30 mile radius from my city, there are 8 shopping malls, mostly built from 1965 - 1997. Of those seven, one has been turned into a 'discount plaza' (there is no indoor mall, any longer - just a shopping strip). Another one (the first mall in our state from 1965) has been vacant and bordered up since the last department store closed in 2008, and now it's being 'rethought' of as a satellite college campus for one of our colleges. It used to be a beautiful mall, now it may be a campus - though the college would want to tear most of it down and use it for parking since they don't need all the space.

Of the other 6 - 2 are sort of thriving. One lost JC Penney two years ago, can't fill the anchor store up so now they are going to turn it into a parking garage (they already have enough parking, but what else can they do?). The remaining anchors are Macy's and Nordstrom. The other mall lost Lord & Taylor quite a few years ago, so they have Macy's and JC Penney for their anchors. They filled up L&T with "Target".

The other four are literally hanging by a thread, and each of them have a combination of 'Macy's', "Sears' and JC Penney' for anchor stores (Sears already announced they are closing 2 of those locations); with a high vacancy in the rest of the mall. So what will happen to them as all their smaller interior stores/restaurants which are left close down with them - putting more people out of work?

Trump better get working on his billions of jobs he promised and make use of this existing real estate which will be an eyesore very soon.

[–] tmontyb (20) 8 years ago

That's really a shame. I hope they keep the one open here near Herald Square. I always find good clothing there for me.

[–] [deleted] 8 years ago

I think they are targeting 'suburban malls' ; areas where young families moved to in the 60s and 70s (when malls sprouted up around them) and now their children and grandchildren are moving away from.

I know what's big in my area are the outdoor "Lifestyle Centers", where there are trendy chain stores (L'Occitaine; Apothecary, LuLuLemon, White House/Black Market, etc) , restaurants, and the only 'big stores' are LLBean, Crate & Barrel, etc. There are also restaurants, condos and apartments on the premises - so they younger families will live there and 'play' there.

As for the big cement shopping behemoths on our landscapes, once known as malls - who knows?