JCPenney Makes a Comeback

Founded in 1902, and once among the largest retailers in America, JCPenney was supposedly driven into obscurity due to a sharp decline in same-store sales and a ripped-apart balance sheet.

That’s not so. It still has an online presence and more than 600 brick-and-mortar locations. Like Sears, it was never gone, but its footprint contracted to a tiny version of what it once was. (These companies have the worst reputations.)

In 1973, JCPenney had 2,053 locations, much fewer than Walmart has today. However, it was considered a worthy rival to Walmart, Sears and Kmart.

JCPenney really fell apart starting in 2011. The board made what it thought was an ingenious move by hiring the head of Apple’s store operation. Ron Johnson was considered among the most progressive retail executives in the country. Of course, he was. He had run the store operation of one of the most successful companies in the world.
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Johnson retooled JCPenney stores and changed how it priced its inventory. The result was one of the greatest catastrophes in the history of large retail companies. Same-store sales tumbled by over 20% year over year. Johnson lost his job just a few months after getting it.
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The COVID-19 pandemic kept people out of stores, and that was, most likely, what caused the final collapse of JCPenney. The company filed for bankruptcy and was taken over by real estate firm Simon and Brookfield.
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What actually killed JCPenney? The usual excuse is the one given by many crippled retailers. Amazon, America’s second-largest company, crushed the retail competition with its huge e-commerce presence. Walmart, America’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer, finished them off with its huge store footprint and low prices.

JCPenney lives on with a website and a modest store count. The next few years will tell whether that is enough.