JCPenney
JCPenney is an American department store chain founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney. It is owned by Catalyst Brands, a joint venture between Authentic Brands Group, Brookfield Corporation, Shein, and Simon Property Group, since 2025.
JCPenney originated as a group of dry goods stores that Penney managed as part of the Golden Rule chain and incorporated under his own name in 1913. The stores were initially located in downtown areas but shifted to shopping malls during the 1960s. The chain struggled in the early 21st century amid the rise of internet retail and the decline of mall traffic, and stay-home measures during the COVID-19 pandemic forced it into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2020. It emerged from bankruptcy under the joint ownership of mall operators Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties, later joined by Authentic Brands Group as a minority owner. In January 2025, JCPenney was combined with SPARC Group — Simon and Authentic's portfolio of legacy retail brands — to form Catalyst Brands.
Its departments include men's, women's and children's apparel, cosmetics, jewelry, and home furnishings along with leased departments managed by Shearshare, US Vision and Lifetouch. The chain focuses on lifestyle products for middle class households.
20th century
Background and early history: 1902–1960
was born in Hamilton, Missouri. 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 improve his health. In 1898, Penney went to work for Thomas Callahan and Guy Johnson, who owned dry goods stores called Golden Rule stores in Colorado and Wyoming. In 1899, Callahan sent Penney to Evanston, Wyoming, to work with Johnson in another Golden Rule store. Callahan and Johnson asked Penney to join them in opening a new Golden Rule store. Using money from savings and a loan, Penney joined the partnership and moved with his wife and infant son to Kemmerer, Wyoming, to start his own store. Penney opened the store on April 14, 1902. 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, 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. By 1917, the company operated 175 stores in 22 states in the United States. 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 million.
In 1940, Sam Walton began working at a J. C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa. Walton subsequently founded retailer Walmart in 1962. 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.
File:Downtown Seattle Penney's store in 1982.jpg|thumb|Former Downtown Seattle store in 1982, with signage from the period when the chain was branded as Penneys and used a more stylized font in its logo. Pike Place Market is in the background.
Full-line department store
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 expanded the lines of merchandise and services that an average J. C. Penney carried to include appliances, sporting goods, tools, garden\lawn merchandise, restaurants, beauty salons, portrait studios, auto parts, and auto centers.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.
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.
Expansion beyond the contiguous US
In the 1960s, JCPenney expanded to include Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Stores were opened in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska in 1962, followed by Honolulu, Hawaii in 1966, and Puerto Rico in 1968. The Penney Building in Anchorage partially collapsed and was damaged beyond repair in the 1964 Alaska earthquake. 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. The Honolulu store was located at Ala Moana Center, and closed in 2003, along with all remaining locations in the state, making Hawaii the only U.S. state to not currently have a JCPenney store. The Penney store at Plaza Las Américas mall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which opened in 1968, featured three levels and. It was the largest JCPenney until a 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 in size.Death of J.C. Penney and peak: 1970s
On February 12, 1971, James Cash Penney died at the age of 95; the company's stores were closed the morning of his funeral on February 16. That year, the company adopted the JCPenney style in advertising. and its revenues reached $5 billion for the first time and catalog business made a profit for the first time.JCPenney reached its peak number of stores in 1973, with 2,053 stores, 300 of which were full-line establishments. However, the company was hard hit by the 1974 recession with its stock price declining by two-thirds.
In 1977, J. C. Penney sold its four stores in Italy to Italian department store chain La Rinascente; Penneys had opened in Italy in 1970 but left due to difficulties encountered when trying to expand in Italy and had only ever opened stores in the Lombardy region. In the same year they also closed down their unprofitable Supermarkets Interstate supermarket brand, which operated in Treasury discount stores; however, the stores that were not in Treasury locations remained open.
In 1978, the J. C. Penney Historic District in Kemmerer, Wyoming, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1979, JCPenney stores started accepting Visa cards. MasterCard was accepted the following year.
1980s
In 1980, the company closed the unprofitable Treasury discount stores to focus resources on its core retail stores.In 1983, JCPenney discontinued its appliance, hardware, outdoor equipment, and auto center departments, the store attached auto centers became additional store and warehouse space, the free-standing automotive centers were sold to Firestone. Also in 1983, it began selling goods online through the Viewtron videotex service. That same year, fashion designer Roy Halston, signed a six-year, $1 billion deal with JCPenney to sell a line of affordable clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and perfumes ranging in price from $24 to $200. The move was considered controversial then as no other high-end designer up to that point in time had licensed their designs to a mid-price retailer. The line, named Halston III, would not last long, as it would be poorly received and discontinued after about a year. However, the business move paved the way for other such high-end designers to sell their products at stores of varying price ranges in the future.
In 1984, JCPenney acquired the First National Bank of Harrington, Delaware, and renamed it J. C. Penney National Bank. With the acquisition of the bank, the company became able to issue its own Mastercard and Visa Inc. 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 Plano, Texas. 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 as JCPenney but produced by numerous established firearms manufacturers. In the 1980s JCPenney's also stopped selling outdoor equipment and hardware such as lawn mowers and tools.
Acquisitions and international expansion: 1990s
Construction on the new company headquarters in Plano, Texas, broke ground in 1990 and was completed in 1992. When Sears closed its catalog business in 1993, JCPenney became the largest catalog retailer in the United States. In 1995 the chain expanded to Chile with a store in the capital, Santiago. In 1995, the drug store business was expanded with the acquisition of Kerr Drug and again in 1996 with the purchase of Fay's Drug. Then in November 1996 they acquired the Eckerd chain. 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.On December 9, 1998, The New York Times reported JCPenney would acquire controlling interest of Lojas Renner for a little over $33 million, which increased the company's maneuvering ability with their already existing units in Chile, Mexico and Puerto Rico. In 1998, JCPenney launched its online store.
Between 1995 and 1998, JCPenney entered Indonesia under partnership with Lippo Group with the branding JCPenney ''Collections'', also used by multiple international JCPenney branches across Asia during the decade. This type of JCPenney store only featured fashion for men, women and kids. During its tenure, JCPenney opened two flagship stores: in 1995 on the upper ground level of Lippo Supermal, and in 1996 on the upper ground and first level of Mal Taman Anggrek. Aside from the two, JCPenney also opened smaller stores under the JCPenney Collections name in a few malls such as Plaza Blok M and Plaza Senayan. All stores of JCPenney Collections in Indonesia started planning to close down due to 1997 Asian financial crisis – with the JCPenney Collections store in Taman Anggrek closed in December 1997, and the May 1998 riots – with the Lippo Supermal store looted by mass and exiting the mall that same month. Currently, the previous stores are occupied by H&M, Uniqlo, and Sogo at Supermal Karawaci and Matahari Department Store at Mal Taman Anggrek respectively.
JCPenney left Chile in 1999, after five years in the country it closed down its home store and sold its main store in Santiago to Almacenes Paris. The stores were closed due to low profitability and high expenses.