ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — JCPenney is closing several stores — including the one in Asheville — by the middle of the year, according to several reports.
“The decision to close a store is never an easy one, but isolated closures do happen from time to time due to expiring lease agreements, market changes or other factors. These closures are unrelated to the recent Catalyst Brands merger,” the company said in a statement sent to Today.
Last month, JCPenney and SPARC Group announced they have combined to form a new organization — Catalyst Brands, bringing together Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand and Nautica with JCPenney and its exclusive private brands, including Stafford, Arizona and Liz Claiborne.
JCPenney filed for bankruptcy during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and closed about 200 stores. The chain was later bought by Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. in a $1.75 billion deal.
According to a news release from JCPenney, the retail chain’s closing list has eight stores, which represents less than 2 percent of its 650-plus locations.
“While we do not have plans to significantly reduce our store count, we expect a handful of JCPenney stores to close by mid-year,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to Axios.
According to Axios, citing data from the business consultancy SB360, these are the stores set to close this year:
- San Bruno, California
- Denver, Colorado
- Pocatello, Idaho
- Topeka, Kansas
- Annapolis, Maryland
- Asheville, North Carolina
- Newington, New Hampshire
- Charleston, West Virginia
“Our relationships with more than 60 million customers and the deep data we have create a compelling consumer value proposition across our brands. We can design a more personalized shopping experience, offer unified loyalty and credit card programs, and ultimately, cross-sell more effectively. That’s one example of the many benefits we’ll see in this combination. With a clean balance sheet, we’re in great position to move forward,” Catalyst Brands CEO Marc Rosen, formerly the chief executive officer of JCPenney, said in the release.
