Published by WWD on 15 May 2020

A fascinating piece with comments by a number of experts including Allen Questrom, Paul Charron and Walter Loeb. This article holds a number of lessons of more general importance to department stores. It chronicles the history JC Penney from its origins to its present position, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Insights from Allen Questrom who successfully led the company for some years: the problem with Neiman Marcus is debt; the problem with JC Penney is that they haven't defined who is their customer today, what is their position in the market. A fair assessment of past leaders of JC Penney as well as a critique of the damages inflicted by private equities; there would appear to be general agreement that Penney will not survive.

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Full article: JC Penney holds some lessons for department stores