What will be a loss to Orange County and the national economy will redound as the Inland Empire’s gain, as JCPenney will close between 130 and 140 of its stores by mid-year and move its Southern California warehousing from Buena Park to warehousing in either San Bernardino or Riverside County.
The JCPenney chain went into a disastrous financial plunge in 2012 and 2013 after former CEO Ron Johnson initiated what he attempted to sell as a corporate reinvention, which ultimately drove its traditional customer base away. In 2013, Johnson was ousted in favor of Mike Uhlman, who sought to reestablish the company’s place in the retail industry. Uhlman was replaced in 2015 by Marvin R. Ellison, who yesterday said JCPenney is taking “aggressive action to better align our retail operations for sustainable growth.”
The department store chain said it is initiating a voluntary early retirement program for about 6,000 eligible employees age 55 or over. It will close out its least profitable stores, representing somewhere between 13 and 14 percent of its locations. Those stores account for less than 5 percent of its total annual sales.
JCPenny currently has 1,014 locations in 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico, 79 of which are in California.
JCPenney’s Buena Park distribution center, the hub for JCPenney’s West Coast operations, will be shuttered and likely sold. The company will relocate its warehousing and distribution center eastward into preexisting warehouses that can accommodate those facilities. Over the last two years, there has been considerable construction of warehousing and logistic facilities in San Bernardino County.
The new distribution hub’s prospective location was not specified.