Tastes of Chocolate is the one who said JCP sold tools and appliance but I think he/she must have been confusing JCP and Sears, because I just spent a few minutes on the JCP website looking for tools and appliances but couldn’t find any. (Well, JCP has small kitchen appliances, like Kitchenaid stand mixers and toasters, but not the large appliances, and certainly not tools.)
I honestly can’t think of the last time I bought something in a JC Penney’s. Kohl’s is my go-to store for clothing, and Target or Meijer for most other items.
I got a Penneys gift card for Christmas, and I should probably spend it before they declare bankruptcy and the money is lost. My mother-in-law got screwed that way with a Blockbuster gift card. When we heard that the stores by us were closing, she tried to buy some movies, only to learn that Blockbuster had already cancelled all the gift cards a while ago.
And the crowd gives a collective “ewww” to the thought of toilet seat covers which really does explain why Penny’s doesn’t appeal to most anymore.
My Mom wondered what was going on when she started getting coupons again.
I always associated JC Penney with where Jehovah’s Witnesses and used car salesman went to purchase cheap suits.
Ahhh Penny’s…
For a while way way back in the day JCP hit the sweetspot for me for modest priced decent quality clothes.
What we really got into was catalog shopping. The store had a counter full of catalogs and people there to take your orders. Then you would return there to pick up your orders (they would ship to your home too, but it was convenient to go back and pick-up). It was the internet shopping of it’s day!
But that was many years ago. It really does seem that their quality dropped from when I used to shop there. Any time I’ve strolled through a JCP in the last few decades I’ve always thought to myself - God, I’m glad I’m not poor!
Sears is another retailer that once had a thriving mail-order catalog business. So it’s a little ironic that neither is doing very well today. Had things gone differently, one of them might have been where Amazon is today. (Certainly they had the infrastructure.)
Given that many shopping malls are struggling, I’m not sure that a lot of JCP’s real estate would qualify as “valuable.” 
When I first started working in the advertising industry, in 2000, one of my first projects was pitching the JCP account. They had the stink of death on them even then. (And, we didn’t win the account, thankfully.)
When I was growing up, in the 1970s, JCP was my mom’s go-to department store; I’d guess that at least half, if not more, of my clothes came from JCP. I shopped there regularly when I started working, but I drifted away from them in the early 1990s, when their styles started looking stale, and their stores started feeling cluttered and run-down.
I think I’ve been in a JCP once in the past 15 years, and that was when my wife sent me out on a snipe hunt for something, and no other store had it (neither did JCP, as it turns out). Most of the sorts of things I used to buy at JCP, I now buy at Kohls, Target, or online.
This Dealbook article in the New York Times says some analysts estimate that JCP’s real estate is worth $5-10 billion, while the market cap is only about $3 billion. And I remember reading a few years ago about Sears Holding that some of the Kmart store locations were in space that had long-term leases at low prices, so that they could sublet the properties at market value and make money that way.
It was our source for ordering Catholic school uniforms in the 70s – and for good white cotton underwear.
…Should have corrected that to just “toilet cover”…you know, the fuzzy thing that goes on the lid.
:o
…and black patent leather shoes. BTW - do they really reflect up, so one can see the item you mentioned?
That’s not any better. Tons of germs fly into the air every time you flush. . . not to mention men peeing everywhere. Blech.
“Myron “Mike” Ullman, who returned to J.C. Penney in April as CEO after the ouster of his successor, the former Apple retail darling Ron Johnson, is rumored to be departing the chain, just four months after retaking the reins, CNBC reports.”
JCP was actually seen as upscale – I shit you not – in my Rust Belt hometown. If my mom bought me clothes or a gift from JCP, she announced its origins with pride.
When I visit the mall where the 'rents shopped when I was a kid, “The Penny’s” is still bustling with shoppers, even though it has not been updated since the 1970s. I’d imagine the chain is still doing well in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Toledo, and similar cities.
Also, when I was a kid, I remember JCP at the local mall sold televisions, stereos, toys, tools, sporting goods (I got hockey gear there!), and furniture. There was an in-store restaurant and optical center. There was a JC Penny service station on an outparcel, which sold JC Penny tires.
JCP has some really awesome stuff lately. i was in there this weekend, and I was shocked at how nice it looked, and how much stuff I wanted to buy. The have cheapie Jonathan Adler stuff (like Target does) and it looks great. They seem to really be copying the Target model, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. I know I plan on going back-- soon.
Me too! Me too! Until the Bon Ton moved in, which was of course Very Fancy. I was proud when I got my first “real” job and could afford to buy my work clothes at JCP.
I think there’s a small catalog store not far from me, but I can’t think of a reason why I would ever want to go in. You can’t buy anything there; you can only order it from a book or a computer and come back to pick it up later (do they ship?). Haven’t they heard of the Internet? What possible benefit would a store have over 24 hour online ordering in my nightgown with shipment right to my door?
JCP was home video game central in the late 70s. They had a great area for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision.