🠈 JC Penney 🠊

JC Penney Department Stores

JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) is an independent chain of department stores.

The chain was founded by James Cash Penney (1875 – 1971) who worked for and partnered in the Golden Rule chain of stores in Colorado and Wyoming. Mr. Penney helped open the Golden Rule in Kemmerer, Wyoming and was awarded a one third partnership. Penney bought full ownership of the Kemerrer and two other stores in 1907.

Mr. Penney moved his headquarters to Salt Lake in 1909. The chain had grown to 34 stores by 1912 and was incorporated as JC Penney Company, headquartered in the Kearns Building, in 1913.

The company moved its headquarters to New York in 1914 and quickly expanded to 175 stores by 1917. It opened its thousandth store in 1928.

Mr. Penney lost most of his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929 and had to borrow against his life insurance to meet payroll.

The chain grew substantially after WWII and reached its peak size of 2,053 in 1973 before it stumbled during a recession.

The company moved its headquarters to Plano, Texas in 1990.

Direct Sales

JC Penney opened its first catalog store in 1963 and had become the nation's largest catalog store by 1993. The store began selling online through Viewtron videotex service in 1984. They opened their Internet store (jcpenney.com) in 1999. The company has consistently ranked well as a top internet destination.

Surprisingly, JC Penney closed its catalog outlets in 2011. The power of the JC Penney model was that it combined the convenience of internet shopping with local service.

Corporate History

1902: James Cash Penneys opened a Golden Rule store in Kemmerer, Wy.
1909: Penney moved headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah.
1913: Company incorporated as J. C. Penney with all stores called J. C. Penney.
1914: JCP moved its headquarters to NYC.
1920: JCP acquired The Crescent Corset Company.
1922: JCP launched the Big Mac line of work clothes.
1924: JCP opened its 500^th store.
1928: JCP opened its 1000^th.
1940: Sam Walton started working at JCP in Des Moines, Ia. He left to start Walmart.
1962: JCP acquired General Merchandise Company which owned The Treasury stores which had discount stores and a catalog.
1968: JCP acquired Thrift Drug
- 1935: Chain started in Pittsburgh, Pa.
1971: James Cash Penney passed away at age 95.
1973: JCP hit the peak of 2053 stores with $5 billion in revenue.
1983: JCP started selling online through Viewtron videotex service.
1984: JCP acquired the First National Bank of Harrington, Delaware which became J. C. Penney National Bank which issued Mastercard and Visa charge cards.
1987: JCP moved headquarters to Dallas, Texas.
1995: JCP acquired Kerr Drug which had 97 stores
- 1951: Banks Kerr opened Kerr Drug in Charlotte, NC.
1996: JCP acquired Eckerd drug stores.
1996: The FTC required that JCP spin off stores in North Carolina as part of Eckerd deal. These took the name Kerr Drug.
- 2013: Walgreens acquired Kerr
1998: JCP acquired controlling interest of Lojas Renner for $ 33m.
2001: JCP sold its direct-marketing insurance unit Aegon for $1.3 billion.
2004: JCP sold Eckerd which had 2800 drug stores with some stores going to the Jean Coutu Group and others going to CVS.
2005: JCP sold Lojas Renner.
2007: JCP launched the Ambrielle line of lingerie.
2008: JCP launched American Living brand.
2008: Arizona Jeans became an independent company but still sold through JCP.
2009: JCP began including Seattle's Best Coffee coffee shops in some stores.
2011: JCP closed its catalog business and its catalog stores.
2011: JCP hired Ron Johnson as CEO. Johnson had designed Apple Store. He redesigned JCP. It didn't work.
2011: JCP launched the Foundry Big & Tall chain in Dallas and Kansas City.
2012: JCP laid off 13% of its home office staff in Dallas.
2014: JCP closed 33 under-performing stores and laid off 2,000 employees.
2015: JCP closed 39 under-performing stores nationwide and laid off 2,250 employees.
2015: JCP closed The Foundry Big & Tall Supply Co..
2017: JCP shuttered two distribution centers and closed 140 under-performing stores.
2018: JCP hired Jill Soltau who had been with Jo-Ann Stores.
2019: JCP: closed 27 stores.

References:

Wikipedia - JC Penny (Drawn 3/24/2017)
Dallas News - JCP closes Foundry (Drawn 10/18/2019)

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