Vacancy on Main Street
In J.C. Penney, a store in the Cache Valley Mall, shelves and displays are being sold for $125. Mannequins are going for $50. Everything else — clothes, shoes, jewelry — is on sale for up to 90% off.
Customers squeeze through extra racks of clothing. Everything has been brought out from the storeroom. Signs reading, “EVERYTHING MUST GO” hang above them.
An employee wearing a face mask helps a customer figure out the price of a skirt with the sale’s discount. The customer is ecstatic to find out how cheap it is, under ten bucks.
But the customer’s gain is soon to be this employee’s loss. Everybody who works here will be out of a job by the end of the month.
J.C. Penney is just one of many retailers to go bankrupt in the past two years. Sears and Kmart filed in October of 2018. Pier 1, J. Crew, GNC and Lucky Brand Jeans have all filed this year. This is the story of large retail in America.
This is a story that has been told again and again.
And now, again.
J.C. Penney, founded in April of 1902 in Wyoming, announced on May 15 that the company had filed for bankruptcy, citing “unprecedented challenges” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To pay off debts and strengthen the company’s financial position, it will close more than 200 locations, including the store at the Cache Valley Mall in Logan.
Kristen Bennett, J.C. Penney’s communications manager, said the Logan location is set to close Sept. 27. Bennett could not say how many employees are currently working there.
“All impacted associates are being treated with the utmost consideration and respect,” Bennett said, “and benefits-eligible associates will be paid severance.”
What the employees won’t get is an opportunity to talk about their feelings on the store’s closure. They’ve been instructed not to talk about it to the media.
Lisa Peterson, a Cache Valley Mall manager, is trying to see a silver lining. But she seems to be grasping. Peterson said the loss of J.C. Penney is disappointing, but she’s optimistic about the future of the mall.
New tenants are here, she said. Paul Mitchell The School, a beauty and cosmetology shop, is now in the mall. Color Me Mine, a do-it-yourself ceramics and paint store, has also opened in the mall.
“Our center is a vibrant place, and we’re always looking for ways to better serve our customers with new and different tenant offerings,” Peterson said. “J.C. Penney’s closure gives us another opportunity to do just that and continue to bring a diverse crowd to Cache Valley Mall.”
However, Peterson says the mall does not currently have a new tenant lined up to take J.C. Penney’s spot. She said the space will be reinvented to benefit and serve the community.
Prospective tenants will have their pick of two vacant spaces in the mall once J.C. Penney is gone.
Dillard’s used to occupy the space at the north end of the mall before closing in 2012. Herberger’s, another department store, replaced it in 2014 until closing its doors in 2018.
Today, Spirit Halloween is using the vacant space to sell costumes and decorations for the fall season. Its large orange sign hangs haphazardly outside on the bare walls, welcoming customers in to buy costumes for a holiday they may not even celebrate this year.
Another large retailer to close in Logan was Kmart in 2016. Four years later, the building on the corner of Main Street and East 1800 North remains empty and nameless, with the Kmart sign gone from its place above the front doors.
Across the street from the mall, it’s the same story. Logan’s Shopko closed in 2019, and it’s still sitting vacant in a bumpy parking lot behind Chick-fil-A.
While Peterson is trying to stay positive, the closure of J.C. Penney has employees in the mall’s other stores worried.
Kelly Almond has worked at Cache Valley Mall’s Downeast, a woman’s clothing store, for over a year and was a regular customer at J.C. Penney.
“It feels like there’s a lot of stores closing,” Almond said. “Quite frankly, I think Logan needs good department stores and boutiques.”
Almond said the pandemic has definitely affected business.
“People freaked out,” she said. “They don’t want to come in and socialize.”
Almond said she believes the mall is doing OK as far as keeping its head above water, thanks to locals supporting it as a community.
On a recent Tuesday afternoon, though, the mall isn’t busy. Several stores are having large sales. Others — Victoria’s Secret and Kay’s Jewelers — are temporarily closed.
In J.C. Penney, a woman helps her granddaughter browse through and try on formal dresses. Even if there’s no school dances this year, who can turn down the discount? Above them, speakers play music from the ‘70s.
It’s fitting.
Todd Griffith, an assistant professor of finance at Utah State University, said J.C. Penney failed to evolve with the times.
In this eat-or-be-eaten world, he said, stores need to adapt technologically to survive.
“A larger online presence would have been a necessity for J.C. Penney to prevent going bankrupt,” he said.
According to a CBS Boston article written back in May, J.C. Penney blamed COVID-19 for its bankruptcy. It claimed that the company had made significant progress rebuilding financially before the pandemic struck.
But Griffith says that’s not the case.
“J.C. Penney was experiencing financial difficulties long before the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said
Griffith said Logan is already lacking in retail stores.
“With the closures of Shopko, Kmart and now J.C. Penney, it seems difficult for retail chains to thrive in Cache Valley,” he said. “This requires most residents to turn to online outlets or travel south.”
Kenzie Payne, a sophomore at USU, said she was sad to hear of J.C. Penney’s closing, but that it made sense.
“The mall here is small and not super popular,” she said.
Payne also said she has fond memories of shopping at the J.C. Penney for back-to-school sales as a child.
“My grandma loved to take me there when I was younger,” Payne said. “She calls the store ‘Penney’s,’ and that’s what I’ve been calling it for years.”
Although the two spaces are currently vacant, Payne is hopeful that this space will eventually fill.
“Maybe a better store will take its place,” she said.
@harriskarcin