Panhandle Penneys Will Close Down Stores In Bonners Ferry, Kellogg Will Shut Their Doors In January

Mary Welch sold thousands of work boots to loggers during her 31 years at J.C. Penney, and she also dressed generations of kids for school.

That’s why the upcoming closure of the Bonners Ferry store feels like the death of a dear friend.

“I’m just heartbroken over it,” said Welch, who retired five years ago. “All they can see is the malls, but there’s good business in those towns.”

J.C. Penney Co. will close the doors on two North Idaho retail traditions next year. Stores in Bonners Ferry and Kellogg are slated to shut down by Jan. 23.

The closures are part of a nationwide effort to streamline distribution and inventory costs at the nation’s fourth-largest retailer.

J.C. Penney announced earlier this year that it would close 75 stores, mainly in smaller communities. A store in Colville, Wash., has been closed, and others in Moses Lake, Walla Walla and Moscow, Idaho, also will go out of business.

The closures are unwelcome news in both Kellogg and Bonners Ferry - neither of which has another national-name department store.

“It just makes me sick,” said Penney’s customer Edith Buschbacher, as she stopped by the catalog department at the Kellogg store to pick up a bedspread.

The Pinehurst resident has been a customer since 1956. She doesn’t relish the thought of driving 40 miles into Coeur d’Alene to shop.

Although J.C. Penney still has stores in downtown areas, most of the new locations are in regional malls, said Stephanie Brown, company spokeswoman in Dallas.

The Bonners Ferry and the Kellogg stores are among the smallest in the Penney’s chain - just a fraction of the standard 25,000 to 200,000 square feet that most stores meet, she said.

Both stores, however, have long histories in their respective communities.

Penney’s presence dates back 70 years in Bonners Ferry, and even longer in Kellogg. The company opened its first store there in 1913 - 11 years after J.C. Penney started the chain in Wyoming.

The current building was constructed in the late 1940s. Tourists often stop in, drawn by the vintage facade and old-fashioned window display case, said employee Edith McLeod.

Small stores used to be the backbone of the company, said Dean Miller, a former manager of the Bonners Ferry store, who retired after a 38-year career with Penney’s.

During their heydays, the stores sold less fashion clothing and more necessities. Until they were discontinued, both stores did a brisk business in work clothes.

“Men don’t buy their clothes ahead of time. They’d stop in to buy jeans on the way to work - especially the miners,” McLeod said.

Both stores also stocked coveralls for loggers, along with rubber boots and work gloves.

“Daddy would come in to get work gloves, and mom and the kids would come too. They never left with just one package,” said Welch, the retired Bonners Ferry employee.

Children’s clothing also was a good seller.

“I loved the kids,” Welch said. “It used to be that they’d bring the whole family in, and we’d dress them from the skin out.”

She knew the customers so well that women would ask her what size underwear their husbands wore, and men asked her to select Christmas presents for their wives.

“I’d still be there selling britches if I could,” said Welch, who retired due to a back injury.

Penney’s employs eight people at the Kellogg store, and 10 in Bonners Ferry. The company will work with employees to place them at other stores if they’re interested in moving, company officials said.