24 February 2017 (10:15 UTC-07 Tango 06) 06 Esfand 1395/27 Jumada l-Ula 1438/28 Ren Yin 4715

Despite a slight uptick in profits at the end of Gregorian year 2016, Texas based U.S. retail icon JCPenney says overall sales were down (again) and they will now go the way of the other U.S. retail icon Sears; massive shutdowns and layoffs.

As many as 140 stores could be shutdown by May 2017, and on top of those employees losing their jobs due to the shutdowns, apparently an additional 6-thousand employees will be offered voluntary buyouts (bribes to quit)!

In January of this year JCPenney shutdown its Madison Square Mall store, in Alabama, killing 120 jobs!

JCPenney also sold-off its Plano, Texas, HQ and surrounding properties in order to pay off massive debt.  In 2012, BlindBatNews reported that JCPenney had joined other big box retailers in failing to make payments on debt financing (Commercial Mortgaged Backed Security loans) they got back in 2010!

Actually JCPenney has already been shutting down stores and killing jobs, since at least 2013 (J.C. PENNEY GOING DOWN THE DRAIN!).

Today’s announcement of massive job killing didn’t come with a list of stores being shutdown, JCPenney administrators said they’ll make the store locations public once they notify the store employees of their impending employment doom.   They gave a clue and said most store shutdowns will be in their ‘smaller markets’.

According to BlindBatNews archives, JCPenney killed 1-thousand salon jobs in 2013!  In 2014, JCPenney shutdown 15 of their outlet stores, 42 of their mall anchor stores, and killed at least 3-thousand 4-hundred jobs!  In 2015, they shutdown 40 anchor stores (including a store they promised local city leaders they would not shutdown) and killed about 3-thousand jobs!  In 2016, at least seven anchor stores and at least 5-hundred jobs killed!

OBAMA LEGACY: “…A SEVERE RECESSION…”

WHAT ECONOMIC RECOVERY? SEARS, BEST BUY, RADIOSHACK, JCPENNEY ALL GOING DOWN?