Are you surprised that JCPenney is still holding on?

Are there any answers? There really weren't in 2021.

Isn’t “barely holding on” their brand?

[quote] What are they doing that Sears and Montgomery Ward couldn't?

The cruisy mens' rooms.

^^ THIS

Sephora is associated with Penneys and probably helps keep things afloat.

Since the 1980s I've been surprised that they are still holding on.

It's only on Datalounge that I ever see anything about the firm, and yes, every time I'm surprised that they exist still.

They cater to a primary Hispanic market segment now

R5 Not any more

Is Sears still around? I think I heard only their car supply stores are still here.

JC Penney has some good sales. I my sheet sets there. I always liked Macys. I always went to Kohls first because I got a whole winter wardrobe from their clearance last year.

When I was a kid way back in the fifties, the two big department stores on our Main St were Kresge and Woolworths. I was sure that Woolworths was long gone but much to my surprise when I started to watch dashcam videos from Australia there were Woolworths trucks in almost every video. Apparently, still big down under, but dead here.

Bloomingdale's doesn't count as a big old school department store?

What about Dillards? Is that only in the South? I think they have great clothes and seem pretty busy during the holidays.

Bloomie’s isn’t mainstream and national; Dillards is only in the south and lower Midwest. Macy’s is still standing (for now) after having bought lots of beloved local department store chains and converted them — often to their detriment.

JCP is sorta on its last legs. It went bankrupt in the pandemic after a couple of years of disaster under the former Apple Store dude who tried to change it from middle American to upscale hipster and bombed. It’s mostly alive because it is owned by Simon and other big mall property owners who need at least one anchor store to keep their properties going.

It merged earlier this week with Forever 21, Brooks Brothers, Aeropostale and Eddie Bauer to be the king of has-been mall stores; at this point the mall managers need to keep it (and those other brands) alive to save their own skin.

R3 My JCP was THE hottest spot in town.

Sears where I lived, R3 and R15. It was conveniently located behind the tool department, heh heh.

JCP just merged into a bigger conglomerate. We shall see how long this will last...

It’s going to be like JC Penney but the brands will all be resurrected mall brands.

I remember the Sears in Chicago (on Lawrence)......lots of cute Hispanic guys in that cruisy mens room.

R18 Sounds like JCP is going to restructure itself to be a mall within itself.

How postmodern. It’s so bonkers it may work, like Everything Everywhere All At Once.

JCPenny seems dimly lit and a soup of beige. I find it deeply depressing and a bit menacing and otherworldly. Like it's a run by aliens, or a portal and you're actually in another dimension when you step foot into one.

R11 Woolworths in Australia is a big grocery store chain. Very different to the American stores with that name.

[quote]Sephora is associated with Penneys and probably helps keep things afloat.

Sephora is at Kohl's now. And Ulta is at Target.

I'm surprised Bloomingdale's still exists. It was THE trendy department store in NYC in the 1970s and early 80s, but that was a long time ago.

Do people still shop there? I imagine its real estate must by worth a fortune.

R20 That's the plan near where I live.

They just fell out of touch with younger generations, including mine which isn’t even that young anymore. They have no presence or power on social media but it goes further than that. Millennials always preferred Abercrombie, American Eagle, H&M, Zara, Hot Topic. Macy’s and JCPenney’s was more for Mom and Grandma.

Even Target has been more relevant in the last 2 decades with clothes than these stores. They’ve done so many different deals with fashion designers that people can’t normally afford.

And Gen Z loves cheap online straight out the factory in Asia “use once and destroy” clothes. Today labels aren’t that important, it’s more about quantity over quality. Buying an entire summer wardrobe on Wish and Temu for $200.

It was all about Mervyn's, bitches!!!!

It's actually nicer than it ever was.

r13 We have Dillards in shithole Arizona.

phoenix or tucson?

There are a few Dillard's in California as well.

If Ellen DeGeneres can't kill JCPenney, then NOTHING can.

I cannot recall the last time I stepped foot into a JCPenney.

I remember when they announced they were moving into our 'upscale mall' about 20 years ago. Filene's (now Macy's) and Nordstrom were the other two anchors, and JCP was taking the vacant 'Lord and Taylor' store (even though the mall was trying to replace it with Sak's or Bloomies - neither wanted it). The media announced it was the first step into 'lowering the bar of our mall' from upscale to 'mid brow'. As it turned out it was bad fit for the mall, and they pulled out within five years. (Nordstrom pulled out about five years later - the damage to the reputation of the mall was done).

There's been so much inflation in recent years. They need to rename it JCDollar.

Macy's killed Marshall Field and (sob) Kaufmann's.

I can remember as late as the 1980s sitting in Woolworths having a grilled cheese. And it was linoleum and had an actual bargain basement.

Woolworth’s was a dump.

A little bit.

Mama’s mussy is on the hunt for some Swarthy well endowed guests and will bring a thermos of hot soup into the restroom to keep her vigor and vitality ALL DAY!

MY main memory of my little town's JCPenney store is that they had a a little rail system throughout the store that had little carriers that were transported back and forth between the sales clerks and an accounting section on the second floor. I don't know if actual money was being sent back and forth or just credit info/receipts were being zipped for approval or whatever. The thing I remember most is the little "zing" sound they made as they were moving back and forth.

It seems to me there will be some sort of reckoning in the future. Shopping on-line tolled the death knell of brick and mortar department stores, but the monopolization of the market by Amazon will eventually spark a backlash similar to the anti-trust movement of late 19th/early 20th century America.

I can’t remember whether they are still in business or not when I think about JCPenney. I guess they might dwindle down to a handful of locations like Sears (8) and KMart (5), which bizarrely remain open (I had to check Wikipedia for that, I thought they’d both died already). Their retro looking Stafford underwear has a cult following in the tighty whitey fetish community, so that might be what is keeping them afloat (kidding).

Dillard's has failed in the more northern markets they entered. The family that owns it runs the chain like an equity firm: very little capital spending, buy back stock every year to inflate the dividend. Meanwhile, sales and profits keep dropping. The merchandising is more expressly for old people than Macy's.

Dillard’s most definitely feels like an old people store. As people need to buy fewer dressy work clothes, ties and slacks (what a dreadful word), and customers die off I don’t see how they would hang on if depending solely on retail sales. When Bloomingdale’s left one of the local malls here it was replaced by a Midwestern import called Von Maur, which looked like it had been decorated in the mid-80s with acres of hunter green carpet and a fox hunting motif in menswear. That store is a real mausoleum and I don’t know how it’s hung on for the ten or so years it’s been here.

Does it look like this, R45?

The decline of Brooks Brothers has been a pain, but it still sells the best quality of affordable mens' clothes.

This eldergay still likes JC Penny for men's clothes. They carry basic classic mens style clothing fairly priced with some good quality names with a mix of younger more modern stylish clothing. Nothing that hip or out of the ordinary. I guess that's why the youngins don't seem to crowd it.

I used to go there all the time to buy clothes when I was younger. But now, if I need something, I buy it online. The one at my local mall is chaotically organized and only has bizarre sizes available. It's also nearly impossible to find an open sales register.

JC Penneys is great for many things including summer clothes, underwear, sheets, towels, etc. I hope it survives

I wish somebody would stay open. I need a new bath mat, and there's almost noplace to go buy one. Big Lots? Tuesday Morning? Bed Bath & Beyond? Linens & Things? Bealls? Stein Mart? The haphazard always changing selection at Marshalls and Ross means I have to go in at least weekly to hunt, and I don't like shopping enough to do that. I just realized I don't have a TJMaxx near me - they're still around, right?

The Brennan brothers stripped Sears, Montgomery Wards, and the City of Chicago.

Our modern day douchebros can’t compare with the assholes who were paid to can US Steel and Sears.

I mourn Manhattan department stores Lord & Taylor and B. Altman. They tried their best to offer quality and a range of prices without going totally up market lux. They tried to offer old fashioned service, even though it was already taking a hit in the 80s. Also both stores were most of the year very calm and welcoming spaces. B. Altman in particular in that majestic oversized renaissance palazzo of a building.

You've heard these sob nostalgic reveries before so I will shut up now.

Monkey Wards!

JC Penny is a great resource for Roman blinds.

Other than that, it's just Sears.

Is "Roman blinds" a sex game in the tea room?

To expand on R14's comment a bit more:

"It’s mostly alive because it is owned by Simon and other big mall property owners who need at least one anchor store to keep their properties going."

If anything, this is an understatement. Simon isn't merely keeping anchor stores afloat; it's keeping most standard mall chains afloat as well. WaPo had an article about it a few years back: some of it is specific to retail troubles during Covid, but Simon's "business model" is basically "last one standing." They also completed their acquisition of JCPenney since then, which they co-own with Brookfield Properties.

It's all basically a long-term real estate play.

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Simon’s long-term strategy, he said, is to be the last major mall owner standing. There are about 1,000 shopping malls in the United States, but Crowe says he expects at least half — if not two-thirds — of them close in coming years. By buying up iconic brands, Simon can ensure it continues to have a presence at its malls while pulling out of leases at competing shopping centers.

Acquiring J.C. Penney, analysts said, would go a step further by giving Simon access to billions of dollars of coveted real estate. The department store chain, which anchors about half of Simon’s shopping malls, isn’t much of a moneymaker — it brings in just $114 in sales per square foot, compared to an average of nearly $700 per square foot across all of Simon’s tenants — it owns as much as $3.6 billion in real estate, according to Floris van Dijkum, an analyst for Compass Point. J.C. Penney declined to comment.

Is their jewellery fair value or total crap?

Oh I miss those pathways through the stores.

[quote]MY main memory of my little town's JCPenney store is that they had a a little rail system throughout the store that had little carriers that were transported back and forth between the sales clerks and an accounting section on the second floor.

Is that where Ginny from Billing worked?

Ginny from Billing worked at Sears. She was not very good at it.

Jinny from billing.

[quote] In Sears’ case, state and local officials awarded the company subsidies and tax deals worth more than $536 million over the past three decades — the largest package of governmental incentives ever given to a single company in Illinois.

Ginny became a Hoffman Estates gal when she was zip code shamed by the South Barrington Soup & Book & Club Sandwich Club. The founders were rejects from the Barrington Book Club. Shit does run downhill - even for Ginny

Penney's used to have decent men's basics along with the underwear (the plain white heavyweight t-shirts were and maybe still are the best. I bought a dozen about five years ago and still wear them. Maybe they're selling crap these days but they were quality, once) but it seems like everything now is cotton/poly or worse, just polyester. Or crap styling.

I would never buy a suit there, but a pair of Dockers or a $10 flannel shirt? Sure. Will I wail and gnash my teeth and rend my mixed-fabric garments if they close? Nah.

R47 I like their casual stuff. Like the basic striped T shirts they sell. Looks like old Abercrombie.

It was years ago but they used to have the best affordable menswear. My grandmother loved their restaurant and would take me there to eat about once a week.

I didn’t realize they had restaurants.

What r48 and r64 said.

JCP carries affordable, not cheap-looking, basics.

Office clothing is becoming a thing of the past, but I have an occasion coming up where it's necessary for me to wear them, so I'll be in a JCP next week.

Unfortunately, I've eaten myself into a woman's size 12 and those racks will have just what I need.

Too much cheese, Della?

YES!

And rich, buttery bakery, and sweets, and all manner of carbs....

Macy's is closing 150 stores by 2026, so far they have only named the first 66.

Have they closed all the Berrenger's yet?

And what’s WRONG with MY stores!!?

It's the last store left in the mall near me. The plan is to demolish the mall and they said said fine, we'll build a new store.

I live in Washington state and visited our Macy's, one of the 65 closing stores. I haven't shopped there for a couple of years. The selection was lacking in depth and breadth. Today the sign outside stated 50% off everything. In front of that was a really small "up to". The first department thru the outside door was men's outerwear 20% off. All other men's clothing was 20% off except suits and dress wear. Everything seemed priced high (or maybe I am a geezer) a plain sweatshirt $49.50 without the discount. I did not see anything I wanted. I wandered over to Fragrance and Beauty. When you get to the counter there is a little sign telling you Beauty and Fragrance are excluded. I used to work for the big N so I understand why as that department has different contracts with different vendors which are strict and complicated when it comes to who gets what cut of the pot. Overall rating: Underwhelming

Main Street is another place that vastly changed. It's mostly cafes and restaurants now. There's a book store and a bridal shop and that's it.

R76, usually when a chain has a going out of business clearance, they sell/consign the entire contents of the store including the fixtures to another entity which then completes the liquidation. The formula is what you described, raise the suggested retail to something ridiculous, then offer measly discounts from that, and exclude most merch.

Big Lots' clearance was like this. Suddenly those dog chew toys retailed at $14.99 and were only 10% off, when they used to sell for $8.99. A USB cable sold for $21.99 with 5% off, but I could get it at Family Dollar for $4. The discounts never increased throughout the sale and those items were still there on the last days.

My favorite item was several bags of Ghirardelli white chocolate chips that melted into a solid block in the bag, selling for $5.99, no discounts on food. Those melted chips had been on the store shelves since 2021. It became a sort of joke to go check on my melted chips each time I visited the store.

why did you keep visiting such a grim scene, R78?