J.C. Penney files list of 154 stores it wants to close, including 7 in Texas

J.C. Penney said Thursday it will start closing 154 of its stores next week in what it is calling the first phase of its efforts to shrink its footprint.

The Plano, Texas-based retailer said it could take 10 to 16 weeks to complete the closures, including two Idaho stores in Ponderay, near Sandpoint, and Lewiston. Store employees were told Thursday.

“While closing stores is always an extremely difficult decision, our store optimization strategy is vital to ensuring we emerge from both Chapter 11 and the COVID-19 pandemic as a stronger retailer with greater financial flexibility to allow us to continue serving our loyal customers for decades to come,” said Jill Soltau, chief executive officer of Penney.

Penney filed for bankruptcy protection last month, making it the biggest retailer to do since the coronavirus pandemic forced nonessential stores to be shut down temporarily. J.Crew and Neiman Marcus sought bankruptcy protection days before J.C. Penney. All three were laden with debt and had trouble connecting with shoppers, who are increasingly skipping the mall and shopping online.

Company officials asked the U.S. Bankuptcy Court on Thursday to allow it to reject 18% of its store leases in 38 states. Most of those locations are in malls and Penney said it expects more closings during the bankruptcy reorganization.

Penney filed for bankruptcy reorganization in May as the corornavirus panedemic put its turnaround efforts in jeopardy. A judge approved J.C. Penney’s $900 million financing package Thursday to fund its reorganization. Retail bankruptcies can deteriorate quickly as Penney’s lenders have power to convert the filing into a liquidation.

Soltau hasn’t made many statements since the pandemic and since filing for bankruptcy on May 15. She will be convincing lenders to allow the company to reorganize and come out of bankuptcy still operating as a department store retailer, but with fewer stores and less debt. She thanked employees and said those who are losing jobs “will be treated with the utmost consideration and respect,” but declined to quantify the staff cuts.

“We will remain one of the nation’s largest apparel and home retailers as we continue to operate a majority of our stores and our flagship store, jcp.com, to ensure our valued customers continue to have access to the products and brands they need and want,” she said in a statement.

Penney has 500 stores reopened as of Thursday.

Penney was among the group of nonessential retailers that temporarily closed their stores in mid-March and started reopening in early May as stay-home orders were lifted. A few more stores are closed because of protests.

It started the week with 304 stores of its 846 stores open and added 171 more. Penney’s bankruptcy lawyer Joshua Sussberg said during a hearing Thursday that e-commerce sales have been strong, up 23.5% last week and up 15.7% in May.

Overall sales are down 32.9% for the stores that have so far reopened from the pandemic.

Among the group of stores open, 202 are in malls and 102 are in off-mall locations. The off-mall stores open so far are performing slightly better with sales down only 31.1% versus a decline of 34% for the mall stores, Sussberg said.

James Cash Penney opened his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming in 1902 and he proceeded to open stores in smaller farming and ranching towns and later in more urban downtowns. Finally, the expansion into suburban malls in the 1970s and 1980s, made Penney a coast-to-coast national department store chain.

Penney put the complete store closing list on its website.