Bankrupt - JCPenney 

Much like Sears, nobody wants to shop at a store that doesn’t keep the store clean and organized, and that has a poor selection of low quality items. I feel like Target is the only store that continues to make a valid attempt to stay relevant.

I LOL'd at "James Cash Penney" because MAN that's such a befitting name for the founder of such a giant chain.

I never was a big fan of JCPenney, but seeing stores that have been around all your life go under is still sad.

The loss of brick & mortar stores is so depressing. I did some Black Friday/CyberMonday shopping all online. Easy although I wasted so much time debating items and still have some stuff in various carts. Stopped at TJMaxx earlier this week, left exhausted but with 4 shopping bags and found stuff I would never have thought of for gifts, cosmetics that come in economical gift kits for me and gifts, a sweater as a gift (that I spent HOURS looking for online, but nothing looked nice) and tons more. I ran out of steam before I finished the store. It had been the 1st real store I had been in for MANY months (excluding Aldi's etc), and it hit me how much I missed in person shopping!!!

I worked at JCPenneys in 2010. When I heard they were getting rid of coupons and restructuring prices I knew it would be a mistake. I remember that most of our shoppers used coupons and would hurry into the store to use the coupon. If only the big execs asked their cashiers first.

When The Land Before Time came out in 1988, I was age six and purchased a gigantic Littlefoot stuffed animal from JCPenney that I slept with for years.

Back when malls were popular, one could roam the entire place looking for something, and only JCPenney would have it.

My mom worked at JCPenney for about a dozen years in the 80's and 90's and she loved it. She worked commission in the Home department, mainly selling curtains and drapes, and made very good money. They eventually took them off of commission and got rid of them one by one, replacing them with minimum wage workers who didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Sears, JcPenney, ToysRus, Babbages, Funcoland, made the winter holidays so much fun as a kid. So many brochures to look at in the Sunday newspaper and circling all the stuff I was interested in. Kids these days don't get to experience how magical it was in these stores all strung up an decorated for Xmas and all the deals going on. Online shopping is convenient but in person shopping was an experience you only get once and will remember forever.

JCPenney and Sears were my childhood stores growing up. The world we grew up in no longer exists…

I worked for JCP for 26yrs. It was a good company for many years but then it started to change. They made promises to long time associates that they didn’t keep and changed policies without consideration/ loyalty toward their employees. They got rid of in store merchandisers, for corporate buyers less in-tuned on local trends. They got rid of higher paid / knowledgeable employees for minimum wage teenagers. They paid regular associates to become “managers” for an extra $1. hr. They got what they paid for.

So sad to see JCPenney fade out. Along with Kmart, both department stores were such a big part of my childhood and it's kinda bittersweet to think that we are living in a time now where these two retailers aren't in the limelight. Luckily my childhood JCPenney is still open and honestly seems to receive a good amount of business to this day but Kmart has been gone for a few months now which sucks.

It’s always a good idea to reward your CEO with millions of dollars for doing a terrible job.

“Top executives received payouts of $10M” We know where this is going.

It's so sad to see JCPenney and Sears decline. I miss the Xmas Wishbook catalogs in the mid '70's thru early '80's. we got them in the mail every year.

I was a Sales Associate (i.e. cashier) at JCP during the “no coupon” phase. While I had a positive work experience, I can tell you that customers were FURIOUS that the coupons were taken away. You are absolutely right about the outdated, bland style of the stores and the lack of a target customer. Adding Sephora was a good move but the clothing still needs work. I have faith that the store will hang on because it’s a survivor. With the right CEO and revamp plan it could even give some luxury stores a run for their money! Good Luck JCP- I’m rooting for you!!

I’m 56, and remember when shopping JCP at the mall was a fun event in the 70’s/80’s. My hometown mall, with anchors Sears and JCP, is now just an empty blight. Getting the annual Christmas catalogs from Sears and JCP was kiddie heaven!

I just walked by the JCP in my childhood mall the other day and panicked when I thought it had closed. I was relieved to see it was still open…and then I proceeded to not go inside or buy anything. Also, “James Cash Penney” is officially the coolest name I’ve ever heard.

I recently turned 19. I never really got to know what shopping in a massive mall really was like, because online shopping took off around that time as well. I feel like the internet is really destroying the way we as people shop, form relationships with others and even work. It has been proven to be beneficial in many ways, but I feel like it’s also brought a lot of negatives along with it.

I went to JCP to get an outfit for a company holiday party a couple weeks back, and I was very pleasantly surprised. The store had a huge selection, was well stocked with clothes that people in the 21st century would actually want to wear, and they had some excellent deals. They even a had a great selection of team USA World Cup gear at very reasonable prices, so I left the store with way more than I thought I would. I think JCP is absolutely moving in the right direction, but they need to act and adapt fast if they want to have a successful future.

I worked for JCP in the late 90s keeping inventory, it was like a weird ghost town of hidden stock rooms and the occasional human. Most days there was more mannequins than warm bodies, and I swear those things reached sentience. It was the weirdest job I ever had.

I worked for Sears in the field and then at the corporate office and JC Penney at the corporate office. I lived the declines at both. Neither reacted quickly enough to the changing retail landscape. Activist investors were a kiss of death. I watched while key programs that had good sales volume and great margins get ditched because they didn't speak to the "younger" customer. They wanted to attract the younger customer without ever truly looking at the life cycle of shoppers. People didn't shop department stores until they were setting up a household and starting a family. Bring in all the brands you want but if younger shoppers don't have the money or the need to shop at a department store, they won't. The JCPenney corporate office in Plano had approx. 6000 employees. I survived the layoff of 3000 of those employees in one day. The field had even more people laid off. One of the saddest days of my career. To this day, I don't know who was luckier....the folks that went home or those of us left behind to continue doing the additional work of 3000 people on top of our own work. I am proud that I worked for two retail leaders prior to their demise. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Retail will never be the same.

I never really realized how bad a state this store was in. My local JCPenney is an anchor in a very alive mall, and it still gets quite a bit of people in it. I like it myself cause the clothes are cheaper than many other stores in that mall (it’s in a higher class area, and the other anchor stores are Macys and Nordstrom let alone the more expensive smaller stores). But it’s definitely not perfect. They are very understaffed, and the checkouts take forever. I’m really hoping they don’t close it any time soon, losing the Sears wasn’t too bad but losing this store is just gonna be disappointing.

I'm 22 years old. J.C. Penney was a huge part of my childhood. I would shop there with my grandparents and mom a lot. I would always buy my Nike shoes from there for high school as well as their Arizona and St. John's bay shirts and shorts. I don't have a personal attachment to other department stores like Sears and Dillard's, but J.C. Penney was just different.

I remember growing up seeing the JCPenney brand. It's remarkable how many brands I grew up with are no longer around today.

It’s truly a sight to see After 10 years of RU-vid Jake is still going strong and better than ever with this series, I hope he will continue to thrive, because I truly love these videos👍

I was in a Macys this year that felt very worn down. It felt dirty, the racks of clothing were not organized and just piled up, racks of clothing marked clearance in the middle of walkways. It was quite different than some other Macys I go to, which was surprising because this was in a very high end mall. It's interesting and a bit frustrating to see how the pandemic has crippled the commercial market in general. Stores and restaurants are all short staffed, and places with staff are majority new hires who are still learning.

The cycle continies. 1. Passionate founder creates and grows a comp. 2. Founder leaves/dies. 3. "Executives" start cutting costs. 4. Company dies.

I still shop at JCPenney for clothes and bedding. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I like to try on clothes before I buy them, feel the fabric and all of that. I hope JCP stays around for another 100+ years. My grandmother used to work there when I was a kid, and a lot of memories walking thru the stores.

Last week, I went into my local JC Penney store to pick up some stuff I'd ordered online. I didn't even know their store was still open! The place was super clean, well organized, & staff was friendly. These are NOT typical these days for dept stores! I decided to walk around the store a bit after I picked up my order & found that they still sell bedding & had a huge display of beds there. Long story short, I ended up buying a really nice new bed there at a VERY competitive price from an EXTREMELY friendly, helpful & knowledgeable salesperson; she was great. Anyway, overall, I would just give kudos to them for trying and I do hope that the new owners can make this store work... it was the chain that my brothers & I got our clothes from as a kid back in the 1960's!

My wife and I are committed to shop minimally online this Christmas season and going forward. This year when we went to Macy's my daughters face lit up when she saw the store all decorated and the cosmetics and perfume displays it was pure joy. Its one thing to look at pictures on a computer of something, it hits different when you see it in person.

I never thought I’d sit through a documentary about the history and financial changes of a retail store, and I don’t know how I just did, but I do know that I *just did* and that shows what a phenomenal content creator you are. Well done. Very well done.

At least in my area, JCP’s core clothing departments do well and Sephora is always packed, but stepping into the home goods section always feels like entering a weird uncanny nega-space.

My first job was J.C. Penney in 1998, I worked in the catalog/credit department. Years later I transferred to watch repair, they taught me a life skill. I’ll always have fond memories of them.

My British mother loved shopping at Penney's. Our house was full of Towncraft products, and I remember dawdling for hours in the Penney's store in Wichita. She enjoyed shopping in this American chainstore so much that she actually sent a fan letter to J.C. Penney to thank him for consistently providing so much of what our family needed at a good value. In return, Penney himself sent her a signed copy of his autobiography, VIEW FROM THE NINTH DECADE. That book sat in a place of honor in the living room credenza. For years, I thought Mom was J.C.'s personal chum.

A number of years ago, my local JC Penny decided to change its layout. It was in a mall with a Belk's, Walmart, and Sears. It closed for a few weeks for a refit and update. I went in and was shocked at what I saw. Instead of having clothing grouped by sex and/or age; they grouped their items by brand name. This meant that the Levi jeans were on one side of the store and the Arizona jeans were on the other. I was used to going to the Men's section (big/tall, yes I am a fat boy) for items, but in the new layout I was instead was forced to go on a storewide hunt for clothes. This and the elimination of sale prices, lead me away from shopping there. These changes were eventually reversed, but the damage had been done to many consumers. I was told by the employees that this was a new direction from the corporate office and they did not want it at all (they did not see the logic in scattering things out by brand). I felt bad for these local employees, as they watched many customers frustrated by changes that they (the staff) didn't want and were eventually laid off. This store didn't last to see Covid, as it was shuttered a few years before 2020.

The JCPenny's near me is actually always decently busy. It came as a shock when I heard how much they're currently struggling.

JCPenney surprisingly was one of few places with hair salons that catered to Black hair. The salon I went to around 2015 consistently had a month-long waiting list and was always packed

I remember when we used to go to the mall and visit these stores and have fun in the little playgrounds and carousels. Lots of good memories. Kinda sad to think about how all of these stores, JC Penney, Sears, Toys R Us, K-mart, were absolutely decimated by the rise of Wal-Mart and Amazon. They, just like our childhood, have faded into memory. Macy's might as well be set for the same fate. You just don't get that kind of in-person spirit anymore in a Walmart or certainly online. It truly is an end of era.

I love JCP!! As a kid, teen, and adult! Their website has improved drastically over the last 2 years, which makes shopping an ease. People are sleeping on their high quality items at great prices. 😂

Free standing Sephora employee here, wanted to add some follow up about the Sephora inside JC Penneys, or SIJCP we would call them. We ended our ties with all JCP in September of this year and are now partner with Kohls ironically. Most people that were working in SIJCP during their closure came to work at a free standing Sephora.

My Mom worked for Penney's back in the early 70's, I remember as a kid always wanting to go there, there was just so much stuff, toys, bikes stereos, and at Christmas time, they had a Huge window that they turned into a Christmas wonderland, just like Higbees in Christmas story. They truly used to be a great company.

When we were kids we looked forward every year to circling what toys we wanted in the Sears and JCPenney catalogs. It was fun going to all the decorated brick and mortar stores at Christmas as well. I moved around PA quite a bit (Wellsboro, Williamsport, Allentown, York, etc) growing up so I remember quite a few department stores (some regional) that are all gone now. Can anyone add to this list? Sears, JCPenney, Hills, Kmart, Montgomery Ward, Jamesway, Nichols, Ames, Bonton, Hess's, Bradlees, Leh's,....so sad.

Recently, I helped out in a Spirit Halloween that had been set up in my childhood JCP. Super surreal experience, as the Spirit only took up a small amount of floor space and during closing we went and explored the rest of the run-down, abandoned retail space. Knowing what that store looked like in the late 90s and early 00s, it was almost kind of sad to see it gutted and deteriorating.

You know its bad when even JC penney goes under

I worked for JCP for a few years out of high school, funny enough at the oldest indoor shopping mall in the US (Southdale Center). They completely demoed the building the store was in about 5 years ago. It's an odd feeling, to think about how you worked at a place that literally no longer exists.

I miss the Sears Wishbook! The toys they had during the holidays were such a joy for all my kids. I wish they would roll out a Sears wishbook just for one year.

I've always associated stores like JCPenny and Sears with the back to school season. It wasn't a great assocation which is why I never shopped at those stores as an adult.

I still work at my local JCPenney (been there for 15 years). And yeah, it's been rough. We are extremely short-staffed, as are many other locations, so the store tends to be a bit messy. I see some of the same clothing come in year after year, nothing really new or exciting. The Arizona brand I think is the closest thing I've noticed to keeping up with fashion trends. I'm really hoping the company can bounce back and get with the times.

I truly can't understand why these dusty old department stores seem almost set AGAINST keeping up with the times. They've had so many opportunities to come out of the past. The only brick and mortar that's going to survive is Walmart. And even their day will come sooner or later I think.

Very accurate- my friends and I stopped shopping there when they changed inventory away from their regular shoppers and aimed at younger and younger consumers. We stopped doing our regular shopping at JC Penney. Coupons wouldn’t have influenced us at that point because their inventory was not to our ages or tastes.

Another former retail tycoon, hitting the floor. I kinda do hope Amazon dips in popularity and we go back to showroom style stores. It's so nice to have your hands on a product to see how the product feels and it's quality

Haven't set foot in 15 years but I remember they made it so hard to buy anything. There was always someone in front of you returning stuff or filling out a charge card application.

I sure hope JCP does not go out of business. That is where I get most of my clothes, both casual and dress clothes. Sears was our go-to store for Craftsmen and Kenmore tools and appliances. I hated to see that place go under too! Another sad day when it happens to JCP. 😭

So much history, presented in such a succinct way. Other places on RU-vid (and on television) should take note; this is how documentaries are supposed to be. Thank you for continuing to put out quality content Jake!

As a 25 year old male, JCP is oddly my go to store. I’ve always been able to find what I need, a worse, what I want. Their rewards program hooked me in especially around Christmas. I buy everyone their gifts, and use the rewards to buy mine!

I worked at a JCP right after they discontinued the catalog. At least once a week I would have an older customer tell me they used to order a lot from the catalog but didn’t have a computer or didn’t know how to use the website so they just stopped ordering. The store often didn’t have a ton of stock and we didn’t have any big items like furniture so I’m sure that was a huge profit loss across the company.

Great doc Jake! The fact that you never mentioned their hair salon dept not one time is so indicative of why I struggled as a hair stylist in 2011-2013. I was paid minimum wage of $7.25/hr as a fully licensed hairdresser. I never got into the sucesses of making commission on either product or services but that didn't matter as commissions were axed during this Ron Johnson red box "JCP" logo era. At that time, the 12+ chair Salon was promised a remodel of the outdated blonde wood veneer/triple mirrored stations. Today in 2023 a decade later, this mall is still open and decently thriving. Surprisingly JCPenney is still open as well, along with that Salon..however no salon remodel ever happened and it looks exactly as it has for the past 30 years, including the same 12+ chairs that by and large remain empty due to *still* very little clientele and stylists alike. So disappointing.

Love when a new Bright Sun Films comes up. Great viewing. Keep up the good work

I never get tired of learning about the rise and fall of these companies from your videos. Keep up the amazing work Jake, you never disappoint me with your content.

Being my 50's, I saw the entire thing play out in real time over my life. I saw Penney's when it was an ANCHOR of most proud American communities, a sign of a thriving MIDDLE class. Penney's was how I knew our family was doing well, which was like 2 years. Mom would shop there for school clothes but how I knew (from a childs point of view) that things were 'not so great' was when we stopped going to Penny's and started going to K-Mart. I live in the mid west and I remember one of my neighbors telling me that the local Penney's was about to close down, I recall sort of thinking how crazy that was, it was so hard to imagine. I would see signs advertising huge sales 'EVERYTHING MUST GO', I stopped in there to look around but the prices were from another planet. IMO, they priced themselves OUT of business. I'd almost rather go slumming at the GOOD WILL than get penetrated by Penney's, paying 160.00 for a VEST was when I KNEW I didn't belong in that place.

There is a JC Penney at the Queens Center Mall in Queens NYC. The store (along with rest of mall) is always packed. It is a major anchor dept store in the mall. I doubt they will ever close this location

JC Penny and sears Christmas catalogs was life

Usually the story of how these retailers went bankrupt/failed is wrong, so let me set the record straight. JC Penny, and other stores like it, such as Sears, Herberger's, Bon Ton, etc. were middle class retailers. Their target market was the middle class, they sold reasonably priced, mostly American made goods to middle class consumers. Their employees actually earned a middle class living with some decent benefits. And the goods they sold created many more middle class jobs in manufacturing. However, once American manufacturing began to decline, and the middle class with it, these stores were on borrowed time. As the middle class shrank, so did the market that stores like JC Penny targeted. As most of the middle class became poorer, they shifted to shopping at "discounter" stores, like Kmart, Walmart, Target, etc. Those stores were part of a "race to the bottom" that focused on cutting price by any means possible. This meant replacing quality American products with very low quality imported goods. It meant replacing middle class jobs with minimum wage, no benefit, dead end jobs that were only a gateway to more poverty. Over time, we have seen how this killed off the middle class retailers, the department stores, and left us with ultra-luxury and discounters as our only retailing options. Often, people will say things like "the store was unkept the last time I was there" or "they were overpriced and that is why they failed." The problem with this is that it only looks at the immediate symptoms, not the root cause. The process of decline happens over many years, usually decades, so people rarely understand what the cause was. To close with an analogy, if you see a cancer patient on their deathbed, you may say they have lost weight, or their hair, or even that they "have cancer", but those are symptoms, not the cause. The cause was the cigarettes they were smoking 40 years ago.

Sad thing is, The JCPENNEY at my mall in Shawnee Oklahoma was one of the most friendliest staffed, organized, and cleanest places. It was mostly the prices that brought it down. So TJMaxx quickly became more loved

As a child of a suburban mom in the 90s this store was our first stop on all shopping trips! Back to school? Formals? Family events? Photos? We were going to penny. My mom had a purse full of coupons, a checkbook, and her belt (in case we decided to act up-it was the 90s spanking kids was still en vogue). She was devastated we they announced the end of coupons. The first time in a decade, I went in one this year. It felt like an old warehouse

I think the only department store doing well is one I remember shopping at when I was a teenager in the '60's, Belk. I believe it's about 100 yeats old, and still family held or in private hands. It's regional, has always only been in the South with its brick and mortar stores. Love it! It offers a no-interest payment plan to its best store-card customers. And it has the best prices on very nice merchandise.

I'm old enough to remember when my local JCPenney had the old "Penney's" branding.

It’s such a sin that they don’t use all the empty malls for use in creating apartments like they do in Japan. They incorporate small apartment livings among the shopping centers. All the shopping can be done at the mall. Food shopping, spas, cafes, etc. The way Japan has them set up is awesome. Great hit among the younger generation because it’s affordable. Great wait to move out the kids from your basement!

I worked at a JC Pennys in 2006 for the holiday season for some Christmas money. I realized one day that their video games were marked on the back with a price tag of $100 and there was always a 50% off sign on them. Making them the normal price of a game. Once I realized that, and how they were advertising I knew it was only a matter of time before they went under. It was a great job in the sense it taught me exactly how far these corporations will go to manipulate a purchase and traffic into the store.

I love watching videos about companies,& just business in general!! This was a good watch

Jake’s voiceover really does make his videos amazing for me. His voice is not repetitive, boring, or fake-sounding at all. He has a perfect informative, mysterious, and is overall an amazing speaker. Well done Jake ❤

I’m glad you made this episode. I thought this might’ve gone under Abandoned but it makes more sense to put it under Bankrupt.

Great video, it brings back lots of memories. There was nothing like a trip to Penny's in the 1960s and musing at all the mid-century garage doors along the way.

Jake, you make an otherwise completely boring topic VERY interesting. I wouldnt dare watch a video like this from any other channel but yours. Your attention to detail and narration are fantastic. This is how you do it.

Interesting fact. Penney had actually planned to sail back to America from Europe on Titanic’s second westbound crossing, but of course would never get the chance.

When the catalog went away, I knew the jig was finally up. As a kid, every Christmas i would painstakingly mark up both the Sears and Penney’s catalogs to create my 🎅🏾 list. Then, I would say probably 85% of the clothing I wore as a kid came from Penney’s, at least, and even after the company was well into its decline, my mom was still regularly placing catalog orders for my big&tall dad, as that was the easiest way at the time to get what HE liked and needed. I worked at a store for a while in college in the early 00s, but I can def agree that their demise began in the mid 90s, because that was def one store you didn’t want to get caught at or caught shopping at when I was a teen. *And frankly, every single anchor dept store at the mall I hung at as a teen is gone now, save Macy’s, and I wouldn’t be shocked it that becomes a Bankrupt episode at some point in the very near future because their stores now look just like Penney’s, or Sears, or Ward or Mervyn’s, looked like before the disappeared **I worked for a cosmetics brand that was sold in the store in store Sephora’s in JC - yes, a great idea, but not well executed on their end and it was by far the lowest sales out of our global retailer base, so eventually even the small brand I worked for pulled out of that arrangement. I haven’t been in one since then

Love the new animation at the beginning! Glad to see your channel thriving, you do great work Jake!

Every August we'd step into Mellett Mall. We'd shop Sears, Monkey-Wards, other small stores especially the shoe stores, but the one that we brought the most clothing home from was JC Penney's. My aunt worked for them. I would eye their uniform section because as a kid I thought the private schools were so cool from an outsider, public school view. They were aging even then, but since I was a kid I didn't know it. The ladies' room had a portion with just mirrors and couches, etc, for makeup touch ups and I loved that. Their elevator scared the hell out of me because of how old it smelled and the weird texture on the walls. I lived for the day their catalog came in the mail (even over Sear's) because Mom and Dad would actually shop there for presents over the Sears in the mall a bit farther away. Mellet Mall is shuttered, O'Neils/Macy's has black mold throughout the hallways leading up to and in the mall front of the abandoned store, and JC Penney's sits there, the last remaining store in the mall but with the mall doors locked because kids would try to sneak into the mall from the open doors when they had a small area in front in the mall as a lunch area for their employees. Recession has hit HARD here in my hometown in Ohio and I've seen so many local malls close recently, and in the case of Rolling Acres 30 miles away not quite so recently. There are two malls standing and doing decently well, and in both JC Penney's remains the box-store in them. I think when they close, a final part of my childhood school shopping will finally have the chapter closed, and the few memories my kids have of shopping there for winter coats and shoes will probably fade with time until all they remember is the Walmart shopping. Fare thee well, JCP.

This makes me so sad...I grew up shopping at these stores with my Dad. Like my Dad, everything that was good is gone. I hate shopping online. If it doesn't fit, you have to pay to ship it back.

I'm just old enough to have grown up with JCPenny and have memories inside of it as a child, but never as an adult. It's fascinating to see how these brands which were once staples of our modern society have eroded away, almost in lockstep. How many years will pass before the entire impact of the 2008 financial crisis will come into view? I'm starting to think it may exceed my lifetime.

I went into a Penney’s last week, trying to keep an open mind, but it was full of crappy gadgets and cheap looking clothes. I used to shop a lot there when I was a kid and young adult, but now it’s just….sad.

I miss Fedco. Going there with my dad after his work was fun! Good times and picking up those paper video games slips from toys r us was good times!!

With malls struggling, JCPenny has begun to struggle as well. The former Apple Store CEO didn't know how to run a department store, getting rid of coupons. Selling clothes and home items is different from selling electronics. JCPenney never fully recovered from this. In early 2020, the CEO was working on turning JCPenney around when the pandemic hit. Mall owners Simon Group & Brookfields bought JCPenney in 2021 hoping to save them from going out of business

I miss all the beautifully decorated stores at the holidays. There's nothing like those catalogues and all the displays in holiday glory. We've lost the magic but increased the consumerism and spending. Children nowadays will never have that magic! Our JCPenney closed years ago in rural, southern Michigan. My Grandma worked there later in life. I liked their Arizona brand as a child. Truly sad.

The background music.. nailed it. That’s exactly what I remember hearing at JC penny’s and Lord and Taylor’s while shopping with my parents for what seemed like hours.

As many others have said, Jake, it's amazing to see how far you've come in the last 10 years. (I've been watching for about 5). I just hope in another 20 years we aren't watching a video of "Bright Sun Bankruptcy" or your "Abandoned Jake's Studio". An amazing touch of irony it would be but highly unlikely too. Keep at it, sir! See you on the next vid.

I recall all the times I used to go with my family members, I never knew of the troubles JcPenny had prior to its bankruptcy. Once again, thank you Jake for another compelling video.

I worked at Kohl’s for around a year and in that time we were getting an addition of a Sephora in store, the whole construction process took about 3 months or so, brought tons of traffic into the store. The manager who became in charge of the in store Sephora and was overseeing it actually told me that Sephora was trying to “jump ship” from JCP asap; they still liked the in a department store concept, but had seen the direction JCP was going in. Kohl’s on the other hand was actively updating things, adding new and more popular brands and styles while phasing out the old ones, which seemed to really attract Sephora.

I always remember seeing the JCPenney at the mall I used to go to ask a child, and it’s really disheartening to see them slowly declining, even though I might’ve not cared for it much at the time, it feels like i’ve lost a piece of nostalgia that I won’t get back.

I was born in the early 70s and remember the days when shopping malls were packed. We lived in a rural area so it was an event to go to the mall. I’m glad I got to experience those times. No internet and no cell phones. 😊

I have a JCPenny drill press in my shop. A drill press, of all things. My dad bought it in the 60s. Still runs great!

I worked for JC penny in 2019, a year before they went bankrupt. I ended up quitting after 7 months because I had to move but I really hated that store. I worked in jewelry but because we were so short staffed my manager would make me work in women’s and men’s dept knowing I never got training for it nor knew anything about it, and then she would yell at me after about why I didn’t know anything about those septa even after I told her she never trained me. Somehow pinning it all on me. Tbh I’m glad they shut down (well the store in my area shut down anyways.)

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I worked at the JC Penney in San Jose's Eastridge Mall in the early 70s...in a department not mentioned in the video: the cafeteria. Years later I passed through Kemmerer on a road trip and was surprised to come across the original store there.

My GF worked at Penney’s in the late 80-mid 90s. Was a Great store back then

So from 2010 until the end of 2018, I lived in Torrance, California, practically right next door to the Simon-owned Del Amo Fashion Center mall (a very nice mall that was still thriving as of the end of 2018, though I can't imagine how it's doing post-pandemic). There were four main anchor stores at that mall by the time I left, but Nordstrom was a new addition to that lineup after a period of heavy renovation, which I barely spent any time in -- for most of my time in Torrance, there were three anchors: Sears, JCPenney, and two separate Macy's locations (including one that served as the only indoor connection between the mall's two wings, weirdly). The one thing I always noticed about these anchors is that they all kind of blended together. I mean, Macy's was the most "modern"-feeling, I suppose? And Sears was the most outdated-feeling, as if it hadn't changed its store layout or appearance even once since I was a kid in the '80s going to Sears with my mom. JCPenney, meanwhile, was just... there. It felt neither modern nor outdated. It just kind of... existed. And did nothing to make anyone take notice of it. On top of that -- and I kid you not -- it also just smelled like farts. Like, just straight-up, the store had this fart-like odor to it that permeated the entire space, and was noticeable from the MOMENT you stepped inside. There were honestly times when I identified that I was in JCPenney solely because of the smell -- occasionally, I would enter the mall through one of the anchor stores without paying attention to which one it was (I'd just absentmindedly head in through the nearest glass door I could find), and as soon as that fart smell entered my nose, I'd be like, ah, this must be JCPenney. ;) It also had the WORST layout and signage of the bunch. The rare few times I actually shopped there, I could never find what I wanted, nor even figure out exactly which way the exit was, or the mall entrance, as the store just felt like a thoughtless hodgepodge where products were slapped down wherever they had space for them, with no rhyme or reason or logical flow to anything. Macy's was far more labyrinthine, and much bigger (particularly at Del Amo, since there were two locations there), but the layout made a lot more sense and the signage was clear, so I never had that problem there. And Sears was my favorite of the three by a wide margin, despite feeling outdated, because it had the most sensible and well-thought-out layout of the bunch by a wide margin. It got to the point where if I ever needed something that a department store was likely to have, I'd just go straight to Sears and skip the other two, as I'd be able to find it there so much more easily than at JCPenney or Macy's (and could enjoy my shopping without the stench of farts, to boot!). Thinking back on my time in each of these stores, I don't really feel like any of them offered an experience that made me WANT to shop there, and I would indeed pretty much always just go to Target instead if I could -- accessibility, with the mall itself actually being good and having some nice stores and food court options, was the only reason I ever chose any of them over the multitude of far better options available. I mean, if I were right there already, shopping at Book-Off or Joanne's, or grabbing a bite from Chipotle, why make the journey far down the road to shop elsewhere when I could just pop into Sears, right? I think if JCPenney wants to survive in the modern marketplace, they need to set themselves apart from the other chain department stores -- rather than update, they need to "downdate." Modernizing the store's look or changing its logo isn't going to change the fact that the store is bland and offers basically the exact same products and an eerily similar experience to what shoppers will encounter at Sears, Macy's, etc. Why not rebrand back to Golden Rule, and change the store layout to reflect late 1800s/early 1900s design philosophies? That would give the stores a really distinctive look that might actually bring people through their doors, and really set them apart from other department store chains. Celebrate Penney's history and business acumen, rather than just succumbing to the bland sameness that's been slowly killing the brand for decades now. Look to the success of places like Cracker Barrel -- the "old-fashioned general store" vibe there brings people through the doors and consistently makes a ton of money for them, and I bet it could do the same for JCPenney if they were willing to take that drastic a measure.

JCPenney is my childhood store. I always remember going there for clothes when I was little. And even now, I have a mid-heavy weight coat I bought from Penneys. My childhood store was at Springfield Mall in Virginia (now Springfield Town Center), a store visited by Princess Diana in 1985.

It's crazy that these different brands that were once some of the biggest brands in America when I was a kid are dropping like flies. It's sad to see them go since they all represent a bygone Era in the country and the world as a whole. I'll always be glad for what I grew up with.

Really enjoy your videos thank you

Everyone uses JCPenny in directions to tell people where a place is, but nobody goes there.