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JCPenney has one foot in the retail grave, and it appears to be sinking deeper.
Shortly after celebrating its 117th birthday, the department store reported a 5.5% same-store sales decrease for the first quarter of 2019 while also announcing plans to imminently shutter 27 stores in 13 states. Though competitors like Nordstrom and Kohl's reported similar first-quarter sales slumps, JCPenney has been hit particularly hard by nearly a decade of declining foot traffic and a failure to compete with e-commerce juggernauts like Amazon and Walmart.
"JCPenney hasn't created an experience that solidifies a place in consumers' shopping habits," Kathy Gersch, executive vice president of the consultancy firm Kotter, told Business Insider's Mary Hanbury in May 2018.
Gersch said to Business Insider in July 2018: "They are creating an experience that isn't right for anyone. They are trying to serve too many people at the moment."
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The struggles of the beleaguered brand can be traced to a series of missteps made by an ever-changing executive team with conflicting strategies. While the appointment of CEO Jill Soltau in October signaled an opportunity for a turnaround, JCPenney's reported quarterly loss of $154 million is giving analysts pause.
However, JCPenney wasn't always so downtrodden. Below, we take a look at JCPenney's rise as a mainstay of the American mall - and eventual fall - in photos.
JCPenney was founded by James Cash Penney in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. Penney decided to try his hand at retail after a failed attempt at starting a butcher shop in his home state of Missouri.
By 1914, The Golden Rule had become a fully incorporated company. It officially changed its name to JCPenney and set up its headquarters in New York City.
Eyeing expansion, JCPenney began introducing its own private-label brands, beginning with Marathon Hats and expanding to Gaymode hosiery, Silver Moon lingerie, Big Mac workwear, and Towncraft menswear.
JCPenney became a publicly traded company in 1929, though it had a bit of an inauspicious start. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange for the first time a week before the stock market crash that caused The Great Depression.
Still, the company managed to reach $1 billion in sales by 1951. After operating exclusively as a cash-only establishment, it opened up credit sales in 1958.
Now fully in the digital era, JCPenney spent the early aughts experimenting with new forms of customer engagement, including rewards and mobile programs.
JCPenney teamed with Sephora in 2006 in an attempt to increase foot traffic. Today around 75% of all JCPenney stores include a Sephora.
Though JCPenney credits Sephora as a positive addition to the business, analysts have said that the pairing is ultimately hurting the makeup retailer and driving consumers to competitors like Ulta.
Sales began to fall dramatically during the recession and under the leadership of CEO Myron Ullman. By the end of 2010, sales had dropped by 10% from its 2006 high of $20 billion.
Sensing an opportunity, investor Bill Ackman's real-estate firm Vornado purchased a portion of JCPenney and then swiftly ousted Ullman to replace him with Apple's Ron Johnson.
In an attempt to appeal to more affluent shoppers, Johnson changed the logo, marketing strategy, pricing model, and brand selection. Most damagingly, he eliminated coupons and discounts.
JCPenney continued to falter under Johnson's tutelage. In 2013, he and the company became embroiled in a high-profile legal battle with Macy's regarding a contract for selling exclusive Martha Stewart-branded products.
While competitors debuted new digital strategies and store concepts, JCPenney had racked up so much debt there was little left to invest in crucial advancements. Sales continued to decline.
"We are still trying to fully recover from the self-inflicted wounds of the previous strategy," Ullman said in 2015.
Once-thriving JCPenney brick-and-mortar locations grew increasingly barren, as this photo from a Virginia store shows.
Despite acquiring brands like Liz Claiborne back in 2011, JCPenney no longer had a cohesive vision and identity around its product selection, critics said.
JCPenney tried a few last-ditch attempts at revitalizing. On the heels of Toys R Us' bankruptcy in 2017, it looked to capitalize by adding toy stores to its retail locations.
In February 2019, JCPenney announced it would no longer sell appliances. It had reintroduced them for the first time in 33 years back in 2016 in the hopes of drawing in new consumers.
In a company blog post, JCPenney shared its decision to shift focus exclusively to soft goods like apparel "in order to better meet customer expectations, improve financial performance and drive profitable growth."
Looking ahead, the future of JCPenney remains unclear. Analysts say it will have to complete a dramatic overhaul that appears increasingly unlikely.
"JCPenney is nowhere," Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School, told CNN Business. "A retailer who's nowhere is dead because the business is always hyper-competitive and typically a zero-sum game."
