JCPenney to shut another location in popular mall as chain closes 150 stores in 5 years in latest retail bloodbath
Amidst numerous closures in recent years, JCPENNEY is about to close another outlet in a well-known mall.
Over the next few months, the department store chain will continue to endure a massacre.
An employee told The U.S. Sun that customers who regularly shop at the JCPenney location at the Westfield Annapolis Mall in Annapolis, Maryland, will have until May 11, 2025, to do so.
Sales of liquidations have already started in January, offering up to 50% off.
Additionally, the building was just sold, according to signs that customers shared in a Facebook thread.
After JCPenney revealed in June that it was one of four shops to permanently closure, it was expected that the Annapolis branch would close sometime in 2025.
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Before the end of 2024, JCPenney stores were closed at Sikes Senter in Wichita Falls, Texas; Elm Plaza in Waterville, Maine; and The Shoppes at Bel Air in Mobile, Alabama.
Of the four, only the Westfield Annapolis Mall location remained open for a little time longer.
According to Retail Dive, JCPenney made the closing news in June, saying, “Unfortunately, we are unable to continue our current lease terms for these store locations and have been unable to find suitable locations in the market.”
“We are grateful to our dedicated associates and the loyal customers who have shopped at these locations throughout the years.”
“We continue to make every dollar count for America’s diverse, working families and welcome them to shop at our other JCPenney stores in the area and at JCPenney.com,” the business stated.
The list was expanded to include a fifth JCPenney located in Topeka, Kansas.
CLOSURES CONTINUE
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that on May 25, 2025, the store, which is part of West Ridge Mall, will bid farewell to its local patrons.
It appeared to be a challenging decision for the business.
“The decision to close a store is never an easy one,” a representative for JCPenney told the newspaper.
The revelation of the closure also upset the customers.
US braces for ‘45,000 store closures’
Experts have warned that in the next five years, about 45,000 physical stores may shut.
In recent years, a number of large retailers have announced shop closures or completely shut down their operations.
Chains like Foot Locker declared in 2023 that they will close as many as 400 stores by 2026.
However, in 2023, other well-known retailers including Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams and Tuesday Morning declared bankruptcy.
Bed Bath & Beyond is now only an online retailer after closing all of its physical locations.
Since the beginning of 2019, the retailers most impacted have been those selling apparel, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobbies, books, music, and home furnishings.
According to UBS, there will be 45k fewer retail locations overall—from 958k to 913k.
According to the paper, certain establishments should prosper while others should suffer.
Retailers like Target, Walmart, Costco, and Home Depot might be among the winners, it added.
“They were my go-to for some of my favorite clothes and coats,” a regular customer commented on an internet post.
“JCPenney was one of my favorite places,” still another person said.
According to a third, it was “terrible news.”
Four other JCPenney locations—two in New Mexico and two in Ohio—have also been put up for sale.
According to a report from CoStar News, JCPenney is expected to earn almost $1 billion from the closures.
STAYING ALIVE
Per Britannica Money, the coronavirus pandemic, was the “final nail” in the coffin for JCPenney, which had been struggling financially for years because to the explosive expansion of e-commerce.
Later, in 2020, it declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which led to 175 closures in 2020–2021, all as part of a “optimization strategy to better position the Company for sustainable, profitable growth.”
For $300 million in cash, commercial real estate company Brookfield Asset Management and real estate investment trust Simon Property Group acquired JCPenney out of bankruptcy, taking on roughly $500 million of its debt.
There are now less than 660 JCPenney stores around the country, a significant decrease from the company’s peak of nearly 2,000 in 1973.
Nevertheless, rivals are also implementing major closures.
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By the end of 2026, 150 Macy’s outlets would close, with 66 already scheduled to close this year.
Additionally, Kohl’s stated that it would close 27 underperforming locations.