John A Penney & Co history

He participated in the creation of two more stores, and purchased full interest in all three locations when Callahan and Johnson dissolved their partnership in 1907.

In 1913, the company was incorporated under the new name, J. C. Penney Company, with William Henry McManus as a co-founder.

J. C. Penney acquired The Crescent Corset Company in 1920, the company’s first wholly owned subsidiary.

In 1922, the company’s oldest active private brand, Big Mac work clothes, was launched.

The company opened its 500th store in 1924 in Hamilton, Missouri, James Cash Penney’s hometown.

Even in 1927, when the company ceased operating as a partnership and sold its stock publicly, managers were given stock in the company, and eventually all employees were included in profit-sharing plans.

In 1940, Sam Walton began working at a J. C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa.

As well, those companies’ success with mail-order sales encouraged J.C. Penney to enter the catalog field by acquiring the General Merchandise Co. in 1962.

In 1963, J. C. Penney issued its first catalog.

The company rebuilt the store as a shorter building on a larger footprint, and followed up by building Anchorage’s first public parking garage, which opened in 1968.

In 1969, the company acquired Thrift Drug, a chain of drugstores headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

12, 1971, New York, N.Y.), merchant who established one of the largest chains of department stores in the United States.

JCPenney reached its peak number of stores in 1973, with 2,053 stores, 300 of which were full-line establishments.

In 1978, the J. C. Penney Historic District in Kemmerer, Wyoming, was designated a United States National Historic Landmark.

In 1983, JCPenney discontinued its hardware and automotive departments, and also sold its auto repair shops to Firestone.

In 1984, JCPenney acquired the First National Bank of Harrington, Delaware and renamed it JCPenney National Bank.

After several years of development, the JCPenney Television Shopping Channel appeared on cable systems beginning in 1989.

When Sears closed its catalog business in 1993, J. C. Penney became the largest catalog retailer in the United States.

J.C. Penney opened stores in Mexico and Chile in 1995.

Since 1999, JCPenney has donated $100 million to after school care.

In early 2001, JCPenney closed 44 under-performing stores.

On April 14, 2002, JCPenney celebrated 100 years as a retailer.

In 2004, the company added 14 more stores and exited the drug store division after 35 years, with the sale of its Eckerd division.

In 2006 the company announced a partnership with Sephora, a cosmetics chain, to open Sephora outlets inside select J.C. Penney stores.

After Rite Aid finalized its acquisition of Eckerd in 2007, the Catalog Centers inside the soon-to-be-converted stores permanently closed, although as a result of the acquisition, Rite Aid now accepts JCPenney credit cards, even at Rite Aid locations that existed before the takeover of Eckerd.

In the summer of 2008, J. C. Penney also added a new brand to its home collection, “Linden Street.” The Linden Street brand features a contemporary lifestyle collection of furniture, domestics, and home decor.

In August 2009, Albert Gonzalez’s defense lawyer announced JCPenney was a victim of the computer hacker, although JCPenney stated that no customers’ credit card information had been stolen.

One of the JCPenney Outlet Stores that closed, at Franklin Mills Mall, in Philadelphia, PA, was replaced on March 2, 2012 by a regular JCPenney store.

Wooster stated in an interview with Esquire magazine that his influence on the brand would begin with spring menswear available as of February 2013.

On January 15, 2014, J.C. Penney announced it is closing 33 underperforming stores and laying off 2,000 employees.