10 November 2014 (01:53 UTC-07 Tango)/17 Muharram 1436/19 Aban 1393/18 Yi-Hai 4712
In January 2014, JCPenney administrators announced they would shutdown 33 department stores across the United States, killing at least 2-thousand jobs. And that was on top of the 14-hundred JC 5 Star Outlet (formerly known as JCPenney Outlet) jobs killed at the end of 2013!
In August there were rumors promulgated by retail analysts that Texas based JCPenney would shutdown 200 or more stores! Then in October JCPenney administrators confirmed they will shutdown even more stores. For proof that investors don’t give-a-crap about jobs, they immediately drove up the price of JCPenney stocks when they heard the news that store shutdowns would continue past the original 33 for 2014.
The new plan calls for reducing the number of JCPenney stores to less than 1-thousand over a five years period. The same plan that Sear Holdings is using is in place; no renewal of leases, and in some cases where lease agreements are what JCPenney considers to be “low rent” they will shutdown the stores and continue paying the remaining lease.
This new shutdown plan comes as an affiliate of Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalist Bain Capital took control of JCPenney; Vornado Realty Trust.
In the following list, those stores in bold letters were not on the list of 33 store closures issued in January.
Alabama: Selma Mall JCPenney.
California: Rancho Cucamonga Arrow Plaza JCPenney. Cupertino Vallco Shopping Mall JCPenney, the mall was sold to a property developer and JCPenney administrators said it’s not worth it to keep the store open, 170 jobs lost!
Colorado: Colorado Springs Chapel Hills Mall JCPenney.
Connecticut: Meriden Square (Westfield Meriden Mall) JCPenney.
Florida: Leesburg Lake Square Mall JCPenney. Port Richey Port View Square JCPenney.
Georgia: Morrow JCPenney will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015. Duluth JCPenney Home Store will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015.
Iowa: Muscantine Mall JCPenney. Des Moines JCPenney will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015.
Illinois: Bloomingdale Stratford Square Mall JCPenney. Forsyth Hickory Point Mall. West Dundee JCPenney will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015.
Indiana: Marion Five Points Mall JCPenney. Warsaw Marketplace shopping Center JCPenney.
Maryland: The Centre at Salisbury JCPenney.
Michigan: Marquette Westwood Mall JCPenney.
Minnesota: Worthington Northland Mall JCPenney.
Mississippi: Gautier Singing River Mall JCPenney. Natchez Mall JCPenney.
Montana: Butte Plaza Shopping Center JCPenney. Cut Bank JCPenney.
North Carolina: Kinston Vernon Park Mall JCPenney. High Point JCPenney will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015.
New Jersey: Burlington Center JCPenney. Phillipsburg Mall JCPenney.
Ohio: Wooster Wayne Towne Plaza JCPenney.
Pennsylvania: Exton Square mall JCPenney. Hazel Township Laurel Mall JCPenney. Washington Mall JCPenney.
Tennessee: Chattanooga Northgate Mall JCPenney.
Virginia: Bristol Mall JCPenney. Norfolk Military Circle Mall JCPenney. Culpepper JCPenney will be shutdown between now and 1st quarter 2015.
Wisconsin: Fond du Lac Forest Mall JCPenney. Janesville Mall JCPenney. Rhinelander Lincoln Plaza Center JCPenney. Rice Lake Cedar Mall JCPenney. Wausau Mall JCPenney. Racine Regency Mall JCPenney, the store was sold for $2.2-million USD (that’s less than what JCPenney had been asking for), to a property developer-speculator, and will shutdown during the 1st quarter of 2015, at least 80 jobs lost.
Washington: The Bellevue Square JCPenney shutdown their 55 years old store, 141 jobs lost! This, despite the fact that the owners of the mall are spending $1.2-billion to bring in more shoppers!