JC Penney Might Be Going Belly Up (Along With Sears)

[LizzieMaine]

This particular plaza is over sixty years old, and has very little to recommend it other than the fact that the other "anchor store" is the area's biggest supermarket. I wouldn't be surprised to see the JCP wing of the complex demolished as a way of cutting the losses -- we're overwhelmed with vacant plaza space at other "shopping centers" here in town as it is.

What they could do is turn it into an indoor impound lot for illegally parked cars, with a credit-card swipe reader on the doors. To reclaim your car you go up there, run your card and pay your fine, and the door unlatches to let you out. But that won't happen, because our local "creative economy" is not very creative at all.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ As you've noted before - far from the sharpest (and far from the most honest) municipal gov't you got working in your town. That said, even the bad ones tend to find ways to rake in revenue - taxes, fees, impound lots, etc.

As an aside, when I was typing "taxes, fees..." it reminded me how obnoxious gov't are in calling things anything but a tax: fee, service charge, surcharge, assessment, excise and toll immediately pop to mind. Just like I bashed (in another thread today) companies who "downsize" their packages to disguise a price increase, I'll bash gov't here who go creative crazy to hide a tax increase and / or the total amount we taxpayers actually pay. The bill at a NYC hotel is testament to this.

It's all obnoxious, be honest about what you - a gov't or company - are charging us via price increases or taxes. Everything else is deceitful and engenders cynicism and distrust.

 

[ChrisB]

Shopping online is convenient, and can offer a larger selection of merchandise. The downside is not being able to examine the goods, and paying high shipping costs. When possible, I like to "window shop" online and then purchase at a physical store.

 

[Zombie_61]

...When possible, I like to "window shop" online and then purchase at a physical store.

This can be particularly handy when the website allows you to verify whether or not they have the item you want in stock. You might have to drive a little farther to the second or third nearest location, but at least you're not wasting time and gas visiting a closer store that doesn't have what you're looking for. Every once in a while the Internet is actually good for something.

 

[sheeplady]

Except when they add a "ship to store" option and ruin this feature as checking the "in store" box includes (and often only seems to include) "ship to store."

(Looking at you, Jo-Ann Fabrics.)

 

[BobHufford]

http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/22/news/companies/sears-kmart-future/index.html

This was our downtown Sears (now a convention center). Sears still has a store in the mall.

This is the K-Mart closest to me. Shut down last year. Of the four that were in town only one survives (for now).

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ the headline from the story Bob posted:

Sears has 'substantial doubt' that it can survive
​

If true, Sears was the last entity or person on earth to realize this.


And man is that Sears above an iconic looking "old-style" in-town department store.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I'd be really sorry to see Penney's go. They have good quality men's shirts for the money. There's really nothing much in a negative way to say about them, they just feel very old and tired as a brand. The local store isn't on the list in the article, but the mall they're in is not doing well, though they just opened a Dick's sporting goods store and an Ulta makeup place is in progress.

It's ironic: shopping malls killed downtowns, and now big outdoor shopping villages that feel like old downtowns are thriving, and malls seem like an 80s relic.
You get to go to this little village, almost like a contrived theme park, and play at J Crew, Restoration Hardware, Williams Sonoma, Banana Republic, L.L. Bean, Build-a-Bear, The Apple Store, etc, and eat at Cheesecake Factory or Melting Pot, then see a blockbuster in a reclining lounge chair. Rather brilliantly timed with a middle class unable to afford a proper vacation. It's kind of hard to fit a JC Penney or Sears into that uber hip mix.

The clothing for women is terrible but I agree about the men's shirts and tops. My ex and current beau shop there. Well, they do by proxy.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Among the greatest dilemmas and frustrations of my life is loving art but despising the art "scene."

Please, forever keep me as far away from "First Fridays" and "Art Walks" and all that phony **** as you can.

AMEN!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

This particular plaza is over sixty years old, and has very little to recommend it other than the fact that the other "anchor store" is the area's biggest supermarket. I wouldn't be surprised to see the JCP wing of the complex demolished as a way of cutting the losses -- we're overwhelmed with vacant plaza space at other "shopping centers" here in town as it is.

What they could do is turn it into an indoor impound lot for illegally parked cars, with a credit-card swipe reader on the doors. To reclaim your car you go up there, run your card and pay your fine, and the door unlatches to let you out. But that won't happen, because our local "creative economy" is not very creative at all.

Exactly! Portland, Maine is filthy with creativity.

 

[sheeplady]

Went to the local kmart today to give them some business. The store was filthy... my daughter accidentally dropped a dark blue top and when she picked it up it was brown with dust. There was next to no selection in her size.

We went to Walmart and they had some of the same things for half the price (and it was clean). I dislike shopping at Walmart for the kids clothes (just about the only thing I but there) but they often beat the prices of the thrift store (that has limited selection and often walmart from last season... with miles on it).

 

[vitanola]

And man is that Sears above an iconic looking "old-style" in-town department store.

No. THIS is an "iconic looking old style department store":

or perhaps THIS:

The interior light court of the above store at Christmas time:

 

[Bushman]

I find it ironic that Sears, the company that pioneered mail order service, cannot keep up in the age of mail order service. You could buy anything from Sears, anything from a hammer to a house. It was the Amazon and eBay of its day. You really have to wonder what happened that it lost this lofty position.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I remember very well when they did away with their "big book" catalog operation in 1993 -- before the internet as we know it had emerged from the egg. The idea then was that mall stores were here to stay, and that Sears needed to get away from its seedy small-town "catalog outlet store" operations and go all upscale to compete on the mall front with the likes of Macy's. Had their management at the time been just slightly less bone dumb, they could have *been* Amazon -- they had the infrastructure already in place, and nearly a century of experience in shipping goods from regional warehouses to different parts of the country in a very short time. And the world would likely never have heard of the despicable Mr. Bezos.

 

[Sharpsburg]

Sadly, I know Sears was finished when they sold off Craftsman - a once iconic tool brand.

 

[Fading Fast]

No. THIS is an "iconic looking old style department store":

View attachment 70602

or perhaps THIS:

View attachment 70603

The interior light court of the above store at Christmas time:

View attachment 70604

Fair point. Growing up in Central NJ, the in-town department stores looked like the mid-century Sears one. But once I started coming into NYC, and saw the original Macys', B. Altman's and Lord and Taylor's stores, I "discovered" the true classic look you highlighted.

While NYC Altman's has been turned into some sort of library / research thing - it still has the same exterior (I'm guessing it's protected) and the other two stores are still up and running in all their NYC glory. As is the original (or very early iteration) of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman (a really cool looking store).

 

[vitanola]

Fair point. Growing up in Central NJ, the in-town department stores looked like the mid-century Sears one. But once I started coming into NYC, and saw the original Macys', B. Altman's and Lord and Taylor's stores, I "discovered" the true classic look you highlighted.

While NYC Altman's has been turned into some sort of library / research thing - it still has the same exterior (I'm guessing it's protected) and the other two stores are still up and running in all their NYC glory. As is the original (or very early iteration) of Saks and Bergdorf Goodman (a really cool looking store).

You see, I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, and the stores like that Sears store were the common, garden variety places in the suburbs. The city stores were the terra cotta mercantile palaces of the 1910-1920 period. The May Company, Taylors, Sterling-Lindner-Davis, Bonwit Teller, Higbee's, Halle Brothers, Bailey's, Fries & Scheule, and Neisner's. All had lovely old stores in the Downtown shopping districe, and all are gone now.

My idea of a Sears store also differs from yours, I think. A few blocks from my grandmother's house stood one of the big Art Deco reinforced concrete stores from the Sears company's first build out in 1927-28. The store looked much like this:

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ That is a gorgeous building IMHO. There are still some of that style of buildings left in NYC (this city is so big, that some examples of almost all periods and styles still exist).

 

[Bushman]

Sadly, I know Sears was finished when they sold off Craftsman - a once iconic tool brand.

My Dad was devastated when that happened. He's been an avid buyer of Craftsman his entire life. His toolbox and everything in it was made by Craftsman. My Dad had actually been a prop guy at Sears for their commercials when he worked in the Sears Tower in the 70s and 80s. It was his first job out of high school, and his first job out of the Navy. Heck, all my family worked for Sears at one point. My mom, her sisters, my Dad's brothers... it was simply THE place to work at that time.

Speaking of the Sears Tower, you'll never catch any self respecting Chicagoan calling it any different.

 

[belfastboy]

Sadly, I know Sears was finished when they sold off Craftsman - a once iconic tool brand.

I still have and use my Craftsman mechanic's tools and all the power tools purchased in the late 1960s.