JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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SamSpade
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JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by SamSpade »

Dallas Morning News has the story —
Test in 100 stores, some in markets with the brand and some not
Also online at JCP.com

Other brands coming soon:
Athletic wear rebranded with Sports Illustrated name
Possibly more of "Authentic Brands" other 30 labels - two of which are already long time Penney men's brands, Izod and Van Heusen.

Other Penney news:
Simon says on earnings call that Penney is performing "terrifically well"
New corporate headquarters in a former store, Lewisville, TX
New CEO Marc Rosen, declining interview requests
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by arizonaguy »

Let's hope they don't subscribe to the terrible idea that other department stores are circulating of splitting off their online business into a separate entity as the brick and mortar business. Essentially (for those other stores that do this) the online business will be the surviving entity and the brick and mortar only business will eventually die off.
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by rwsandiego »

arizonaguy wrote: December 15th, 2021, 4:43 pm Let's hope they don't subscribe to the terrible idea that other department stores are circulating of splitting off their online business into a separate entity as the brick and mortar business. Essentially (for those other stores that do this) the online business will be the surviving entity and the brick and mortar only business will eventually die off.
Don't give them any ideas!
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: December 15th, 2021, 6:26 pm
arizonaguy wrote: December 15th, 2021, 4:43 pm Let's hope they don't subscribe to the terrible idea that other department stores are circulating of splitting off their online business into a separate entity as the brick and mortar business. Essentially (for those other stores that do this) the online business will be the surviving entity and the brick and mortar only business will eventually die off.
Don't give them any ideas!
Their online business is probably worth too little for a deal of that nature to make sense. It would be interesting if by JCP not getting involved in that sort of deal (as competitors like Macy's or Kohl's and perhaps even Target get suckered into such deals), JCP somehow is a survivor.

I wonder if they are taking market share back from Kohl's (chain seems really anemic lately). I have no idea how. Both are at best very below average stores.
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by babs »

I looked at which stores in the Portland area are carrying the Forever 21 merchandise and only the Three Rivers Mall location in Kelso has it. So they selected a store in a small town in a dying mall for this experiment. Based on this, I give it no hope of succeeding. It's a nice test but put it in your best, not worst stores.
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: December 15th, 2021, 10:06 pm I looked at which stores in the Portland area are carrying the Forever 21 merchandise and only the Three Rivers Mall location in Kelso has it. So they selected a store in a small town in a dying mall for this experiment. Based on this, I give it no hope of succeeding. It's a nice test but put it in your best, not worst stores.
How did you find the locations carrying it?
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: December 15th, 2021, 10:06 pm I looked at which stores in the Portland area are carrying the Forever 21 merchandise and only the Three Rivers Mall location in Kelso has it. So they selected a store in a small town in a dying mall for this experiment. Based on this, I give it no hope of succeeding. It's a nice test but put it in your best, not worst stores.
If this is true, this is an odd place for this.

The Kelso store is one of the smallest in this area, at best maybe 50,000 square feet. In recent years parts of the store have been VERY thin on merchandise, particularly the men's department which has wide open spaces and very little selection. This store has escaped closing lists so far. But the Three Rivers Mall has an odd mix when you move away from the other anchors (Sportsman's Warehouse and Regal Cinemas, and a vacant Macy's) and has very little to offer to the crowd who would shop at Forever 21. This might cause a very brief surge in business at best....most of the local operators which now occupy the mall's interior tend to set their own hours and at any given time about half are closed. This isn't going to boost the inside mall business much if at all. A lot of local people don't even visit the mall any more and shop out of town. I honestly am not sure how the Kelso JCPenney stays open. The Three Rivers Mall has been in steady decline ever since they lost Emporium as an anchor.

I know that Forever 21 took over part of an old Mervyn's at Capital Mall in Olympia, which ended up closing. I wonder if they plan to sell the merchandise at the JCPenney in the same mall, which is bigger than the Kelso store, but still only a single story.
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by Romr123 »

Separately, I was having a look at JCP's website. It looks like the smallest stores remaining are showing as "Closed" today...just wonder if they're doing some weird "weekend only" thing...stores like West Plains, MO...
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Re: JCPenney offering Forever 21 Merchandise

Post by storewanderer »

They have a very small display of this stuff in Reno now. It is a few hundred footsteps from a large Forever 21, so I am not sure why they did this.
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