Backstory: History of J.C. Penney

I wrote something before about J.C. Penney as "being from Texas or Oklahoma or someplace," (it was founded in Wyoming actually) but given how important the company has become, I thought we might as well have a full background story on it.

J. C. Penney

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This article is about the department store chain. For its founder, see James Cash Penney. For the Irish retail chain branded Penneys, see Primark.

J. C. Penney Company, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: JCP S&P 500 Component
Industry	Retail
Founded	Kemmerer, Wyoming, U.S. (1902)
Founder(s)	James Cash Penney William Henry McManus
Headquarters	Plano, Texas, U.S.
Number of locations	1,106 (2010)[1]
Area served	United States
Key people	Mike Ullman, CEO Thomas Engibous, Chairperson[2]
Products	Clothing Footwear Furniture Jewelry Beauty products Electronics Housewares
Revenue	$ 17.2 billion (FY 2012)[3]
Operating income	$ -2 million (FY 2012)[3]
Net income	$ -152 million (FY 2012)[3]
Total assets	$ 11.4 billion (FY 2012)[3]
Total equity	$ 4.01 billion (FY 2012)[3]
Website	JCPenney.com

J. C. Penney Company, Inc., commonly known as JCPenney (stylized as jcp and formerly jcpenney) and formerly known as Penney's (stylized as Penneys), is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, and previously operated a catalog business and several discount outlets.^[4] In addition to selling conventional merchandise, JCPenney stores often house several leased departments such as Sephora, Seattle's Best Coffee, optical centers, portrait studios, and jewelry repair.
Most JCPenney stores are located in suburban shopping malls. Before 1966, most of its stores were located in downtown areas. As shopping malls became more popular in the latter half of the 20th century, JCPenney followed the trend by relocating and developing stores to anchor the malls. In more recent years, the chain has continued to follow consumer traffic, echoing the retailing trend of opening some standalone stores, including some next door to competitors. Certain stores are located in power centers. The company has been an Internet retailer since 1998. It has streamlined its catalog and distribution while undergoing renovation improvements at store level.

History

Incorporation

J.C. Penney mother store in Kemmerer, Wyoming.

James Cash Penney was born in Hamilton, MO. After graduating from high school, Penney worked for a local retailer. He relocated to Colorado at the advice of a doctor, hoping that a better climate would be more conducive to health. In Colorado he began working for The Golden Rule store, in a partnership with Guy Johnson and Thomas Callahan, on April 14, 1902, in Kemmerer, Wyoming.^[5] He participated in the creation of two more stores, and purchased full interest in all three locations when Callahan and Johnson dissolved their partnership in 1907. In 1909, Penney moved his company headquarters to Salt Lake City, Utah to be closer to banks and railroads. By 1912, Penney had 34 stores in the Rocky Mountain States. In 1913, all stores were consolidated under the J.C. Penney banner. The so-called "mother store", in Kemmerer, opened as the chain's second location in 1904. It still operates, as of 2011, albeit with shorter hours than many other locations.
In 1913, the company was incorporated under the new name, J. C. Penney Company, with William Henry McManus as a co-founder. In 1914, the headquarters was moved to New York City to simplify buying, financing, and transportation of goods. Around this time, Bert J. Niver joined the company as a junior partner. By 1917, the company operated 175 stores in 22 states in the United States.^[6] J. C. Penney acquired The Crescent Corset Company in 1920, the company's first wholly owned subsidiary. In 1922, the company's oldest active private brand, Big Mac work clothes, was launched. The company opened its 500th store in 1924 in Hamilton, Missouri, James Cash Penney's hometown. By the opening of the 1,000th store in 1928, gross business had reached $190,000,000.
In 1940, Sam Walton began working at a J. C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa. Walton later went on to found future retailer Walmart in 1962.^[7] By 1941, J.C. Penney operated 1,600 stores in all 48 states. In 1956, J. C. Penney started national advertising with a series of advertisements in Life magazine. J. C. Penney credit cards were first issued in 1959.

1960s

The Penney Building in Anchorage in 1964, following the earthquake.

Photo taken January 2013, showing the J. C. Penney location at the now-closed Palm Beach Mall. The store opened in 1967 as an original anchor of the mall.

In 1962, J. C. Penney entered discount merchandising with the acquisition of General Merchandise Company which gave them The Treasury stores. These discount operations proved unsuccessful and were shuttered in 1981. In 1963, J. C. Penney issued its first catalog. The company operated in-store catalog desks in eight states. The catalogs were distributed by the Milwaukee Catalog distribution center.
The company dedicated its first full-line, shopping center department store in 1961. This store was located at Black Horse Pike Center, in Audubon, New Jersey. The second full line shopping center store was dedicated, at King of Prussia Plaza, in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in late 1962. Those stores broadened the lines of merchandise and services that a typical J. C. Penney carried to include appliances, sporting goods, garden merchandise, restaurants, beauty salons, portrait studios, auto parts and auto centers.
J. C. Penney expanded to include Alaska and Hawaii in the 1960s. The company opened stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska in 1962. The Penney Building in Anchorage partially collapsed and was damaged beyond repair in the 1964 Alaska earthquake.^[8][9] The company rebuilt the store as a shorter building on a larger footprint, and followed up by building Anchorage's first public parking garage, which opened in 1968.^[10] In 1966, J. C. Penney "finished" its national expansion with the opening of its Honolulu, Hawaii store, at Ala Moana Center (all Hawaii stores were closed in 2003). The Penney store at Plaza Las Américas mall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which opened in 1968, featured three levels and 261,500 square feet (24,290 m²). It was the largest J. C. Penney, until a 300,000-square-foot (28,000 m²) store was dedicated at Greater Chicago's Woodfield Mall in 1971. The Woodfield Mall store served as the largest in the chain until a replacement store opened at Plaza Las Américas in 1998, which is 350,000 square feet (33,000 m²) in size. In 1969, the company acquired Thrift Drug, a chain of drugstores headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It also acquired Supermarkets Interstate, an Omaha-based food retailer which operated leased departments in J. C. Penney stores, The Treasury stores, and Thrift Drug stores.

1970s

On February 12, 1971, James Cash Penney died at the age of 95. Out of respect for his death, the company's stores were closed for half a day.^{[citation needed]} That year, the company's revenues reached $5 billion for the first time and catalog business made a profit for the first time.^[11]
The first "JCPenney" logo was adopted in the summer of 1970, taking nearly a decade to roll out chainwide.^{[citation needed]}
JCPenney reached its peak number of stores in 1973, with 2,053 stores, 300 of which were full-line establishments.^[11] However, the company was hard hit by the 1974 recession with its stock price declining by two-thirds.^[11] In 1977, J. C. Penney sold its stores in Italy to La Rinascente and also removed its Supermarkets Interstate leased departments. In 1980, The company closed the Treasury discount stores because they were unprofitable and decided to focus resources on its core retail stores.^[11]
In 1978, the J. C. Penney Historic District in Kemmerer, Wyoming, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1979, the Visa card began to be accepted in JCPenney stores. MasterCard was accepted the following year.^[11]

1980s

JCPenney in Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida.

JC Penney was a major online retailer on Viewtron during the 1980s

In 1983, JCPenney discontinued its hardware and automotive departments, and also sold its auto repair shops to Firestone. Also in 1983, JCPenney began selling online through the Viewtron videotex service. In 1984, JCPenney acquired the First National Bank of Harrington, Delaware and renamed it JCPenney National Bank. With the bank the company became able to issue its own MasterCard and Visa cards. The company also began accepting American Express cards. Also that year, Thrift Drug began co-locating stores with Weis Markets, and acquired many former Pantry Pride properties. In April 1987, the company announced that it was moving its headquarters to Dallas, Texas.^[12] After several years of development, the JCPenney Television Shopping Channel appeared on cable systems beginning in 1989.
By the mid-1980s, all JCPenney stores had discontinued sales of firearms. Before this point, JCPenney carried rifles and shotguns branded with the JCPenney brand but produced by numerous established firearms manufacturers.

1990s

JCPenney big-box store in Houston, Texas.

In 1990, the company broke ground with the new corporate headquarters in Plano, Texas. It was completed in 1992. When Sears closed its catalog business in 1993, J. C. Penney became the largest catalog retailer in the United States. In 1996, the company expanded its drug store business with the acquisition of Fay's Drug and Kerr Drug. These acquisitions momentum climaxed with acquisition of the Eckerd chain in November. Fay's, Kerr, and Eckerd merged into J. C. Penney's drug store subsidiary Thrift Drug. Fay's, most Kerr, and Thrift drug stores were re-branded Eckerd in 1997. (Kerr Drug stores in The Carolinas remain branded as such.)^[13]
In 1998, JCPenney launched its Internet store, which has since grown into one of the largest apparel and home furnishings retail sites on the Internet. In early 2001, JCPenney closed 44 under-performing stores. On April 14, 2002, JCPenney celebrated 100 years as a retailer. In 2003, the company opened three off-the-mall stores in strip centers. These stores were located in Texas, Minnesota, and Indiana. The new one-level, 94,000 sq ft (8,700 m²) format stores focus on convenience with wider aisles and centralized checkouts.^[14]

2000s

JCPenney in the Holiday Village Mall in Great Falls, Montana.

In 2004, the company added 14 more stores and exited the drug store division after 35 years, with the sale of its Eckerd division. In 2005, JCPenney's e-commerce storefront exceeded the one-billion dollar revenue mark for the first time.
In 2007, JCPenney launched the Ambrielle lingerie label, which became their largest private brand launched in the company's history.^[15] J. C. Penney also re-introduced cosmetics with the opening of Sephora "stores-within-a-store" inside some J. C. Penney locations. Beginning in 2007 the store slogan changed from "It's All Inside" to "Every Day Matters"; the new slogan and associated ad campaign was launched in television commercials during the 79th Academy Awards in late February 2007.
After JCPenney sold off Eckerd in 2004, the locations that continued to operate as Eckerd (some locations in the Southern U.S. were sold to CVS Corporation) still had JCPenney Catalog Centers inside the stores (which was a carryover from locations that were once Thrift Drug) and also continued to accept JCPenney credit cards. After Rite Aid finalized its acquisition of Eckerd in 2007, the Catalog Centers inside the soon-to-be-converted francois stores permanently closed, although as a result of the acquisition, Rite Aid now accepts JCPenney credit cards, even at Rite Aid locations that existed before the takeover of Eckerd.
In November 2007, the company launched a new public website, JCPenneyBrands.com, which covers the company's private and exclusive brands, and their branding strategy, with a preview of an upcoming product line. In February 2008, the company launched the "American Living" brand, as developed by Ralph Lauren, across several product lines, including Men's, Women's, and Children's Apparel and Shoes, Intimate Apparel, and Home. The launch, which was accompanied by an ad campaign during the 2008 Academy Awards, was the company's largest private brand launch.^[16] American Living for infant apparel was launched in July 2008. In the summer of 2008, J. C. Penney also added a new brand to its home collection, "Linden Street." The Linden Street brand features a contemporary lifestyle collection of furniture, domestics, and home decor. Linden Street is sold exclusively in JCPenney stores and through their website. Other new exclusive brands for juniors and young men's were launched in the summer of 2008. They included a relaunch of Le Tigre, along with Decree, and Fabulosity, a junior line of clothing by Kimora Lee Simmons.
In June 2008, an ad called "Speed Dressing" emerged ending with the JCPenney logo and slogan "Every Day Matters". The ad won a prize at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. The ad was criticized for seeming to promote teen sex. JCPenney denied that the ad was theirs and their advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi reported that it had been created by a third party vendor. It was entered in the competition by Epoch Films, who declined to comment.^[17][18] Marketing expert John Tantillo advised that the company distance itself from the commercial and also shed the publicity it engendered.^[19]
In July 2009, new additions were made to the JCPenney young men's department, including an expansion of their private brand Decree (previously exclusively a juniors clothing line) and the introduction of more skate/surf-oriented clothing, including Rusty, RS by Ryan Sheckler, and 3rd Rail. In August 2009, Albert Gonzalez's defense lawyer announced that JCPenney was a victim of the computer hacker, although JCPenney stated that no customers' credit card information had been stolen.^[20] In September 2010, JCPenney had joined Facebook to help promote their "Care, Share, Win" campaign. Since 1999, JCPenney has donated $100 million to after school care. Fans of JCPenney on Facebook can help decide which school will receive the next million dollars.
In 2009, JCPenney reached an agreement with Seattle's Best Coffee to feature full-service cafes within leased departments inside JCPenney stores across the country. Currently, Seattle's Best Coffee are still expanding cafe locations within JCPenney locations across the country.

2010s

A two-story J. C. Penney at Stonebriar Centre in Frisco, Texas opened in 2000.

J.C. Penney offices in Salt Lake City, Utah

On January 24, 2011, JCPenney announced it would exit the catalog business and close all 19 of its catalog outlet stores.^[21] An additional seven stores, two call center facilities, and one customer decorating facility would also be closed.^[21] One of the JCPenney Outlet Store that closed, at Franklin Mills Mall, in Philadelphia, PA, was replaced on 3/2/2012 by a regular JCPenney store.
On February 12, 2011, The New York Times exposed the use of link schemes, i.e., spamdexing, successfully to promote the JCPenney web site in Google search results by having the company's website come up as the top search results, especially during the holiday season. Doug Pierce, an expert in online search, described the optimization as "the most ambitious attempt to game Google's search results that he has ever seen." Ultimately, Google took retaliatory action and drastically reduced the visibility of JCPenney in searches. Although the retailer denied any involvement, it fired its search engine consulting firm, SearchDex.^[22]
In June 2011, JCPenney announced that Ron Johnson will become the company's new CEO.^[23] In October 2011, JCPenney sold the 15 remaining catalog outlet stores to SB Capital Group. These stores will remain open then transition to JC's 5 Star Outlets.^[24] On December 7, 2011, JCPenney announced the acquisition of 16.6 percent of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia stock. JCPenney plans to put "mini-Martha Stewart shops" in many of its stores in 2013, as well as starting a website together.^[25]
On February 1, 2012, JCPenney began a new pricing method, with "Every Day" prices on most days reflecting what used to be sale prices, "Monthly Value" for certain items every month in place of sales, and "Best Price" the first and third Fridays of each month, tied to paydays.^[26][27] Prices would also not end in 9 or 7, instead using whole figures when pricing items.^[28] The changes in the stores include a focus on the mini-stores such as those for Martha Stewart products.
Ellen DeGeneres, a former JCPenney employee, became the chain's spokesperson in a tour and advertising campaign in Spring 2012.^[29] The advertising campaign received backlash from One Million Moms – an arm of the conservative American Family Association – which stated, "Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families." JCPenney later issued a statement reassuring that they stood behind DeGeneres as their spokeswoman.
In April 2012, the company announced plans to trim its workforce, laying off nearly 13% of its home office staff in Dallas, and closing a call center in Pittsburgh. Many managers, supervisors and long-time employees were let go on April 30, 2012, due to "simplified practices" that no longer needed as much oversight.^{[citation needed]} In June 2012, the company announced that Michael Francis, the company's president, was leaving the company, after only eight months on the job, effective immediately.^[30] In July 2012, the company announced that it was laying off 350 more workers at its headquarters.^[31]
In August 2012, JCPenney began rolling out a Shops strategy in stores. The shops are described as stores-within-a-store, planning to eventually roll out 100 shops in 683 stores. The first shops include Levi's, The Original Arizona Jean Co. and i jeans by Buffalo.^[32] That month, the company posted a second quarter comparable-store loss of 22%, with internet sales dropping 33%. At an analyst meeting in New York the same day, CEO Ron Johnson said, "I’m completely convinced that our transformation is on track." JCPenney's stock rose 5.9% on Johnson's comments at the analyst meeting, the largest single-day stock increase since late January 2012.^[33] The "secret" prototype store is located on the 3rd floor of the store at Valley View Center in Dallas, which has been closed to the public.
Fourth quarter sales for JCPenney, in 2012, were poor. Sales were off 28.4% from a year earlier, same store sales were down 32%. Strategic choices made by CEO Ron Johnson a year earlier, including the change in pricing strategy, were being called into question.^[34]
It was announced in April 2012 that Nickelson Wooster would become the creative director for JCPenney menswear.^[35] Wooster stated in an interview with Esquire magazine that his influence on the brand would begin with spring menswear available as of February 2013.^[36]
On April 8, 2013, it was announced that CEO Ron Johnson had been fired.^[37] It was later announced that Mike Ullman, the retailer's former CEO, will be his interim replacement.^[38]
In August 2013, William A. Ackman of Pershing Square Capital Management continued his efforts to remove Thomas Engibous, the company's Chairman of the Board of Directors.^[39]

Internet store

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In 1998, JCPenney launched its Internet store, which has since grown into one of the largest apparel and home furnishings retail sites on the Internet, or so it thought.^[40][41] The JCPenney store currently ships products to the following countries/regions:^[42]

Americas Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Aruba Belize Barbados Bermuda Brazil Bolivia Canada Cayman Islands Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador French Guiana Grenada Guadeloupe Guatemala Honduras Jamaica Martinique Mexico Montserrat Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Islands United States

Europe Austria Belgium Bulgaria Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Gibraltar Greece Guernsey Iceland Ireland Italy Jersey Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Monaco Netherlands Norway Portugal Romania Russian Federation Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey United Kingdom

Asia-Pacific Bangladesh Brunei Cambodia India Macau Maldives Pakistan Réunion Sri Lanka Africa South Africa Middle East Cyprus Israel