First New JCPenney In 8 Years Opens

[FrankMoore99]

Brookfield essentially brought in JCPenney because they wanted to fill out their Anchors at Willowbrook Mall.

Brookfield and Simon essentially bought JCPenney to keep their anchors full nationwide. If JCPenney closed it would have bankrupted Brookfield, Simon, and others as mall rents are contingent on anchor spaces being occupied. Tenants may see rents reduced by as much as 90% if the anchors required in their lease close. New leases generally don't have these carve outs, but at the time of the JCPenney bankruptcy it was cheaper to spend a billion or so to buy it then lose several billion each year in rent concessions. JCPenney is basically an outlet mall in a department store building now selling the same Authentic Brands corporation made-for-outlet product. I expect that any future Brookfield mall where JCPenney isn't present and a Macy's or other department store closes will see a "new" JCPenney open there immediately too. Again even if the JCPenney store loses money it will be less of a loss than they will incur on rent concessions for absent anchor business. Once all the leases are cycled through and nobody has these large penalties for absent anchors anymore then I expect we will see Brookfield and Simon sell their interests in JCPenney to private equity or someone else who will gradually wind it down like Sears by selling off the real estate a store at a time for redevelopment into other chains, food courts, markets like Whole Foods, etc. I am also noticing that the various Authentic Brands owned outlet stores are clearing out of the outlet malls now to drive more business to JCPenney stores that carry the same product already too. Many outlet malls are in better quality tourist areas where they can be redeveloped into hotels and resorts. I expect to see some of the outlet malls like Carlsbad close in the next few years and become apartments, hotels etc.

Are the stores JCPenney was originally going to close that stayed open (Inland Center, Acadiana Mall, Layton Hills Mall, Sun Valley Mall, River Oaks Center) doing better than they were in 2019, and gaining in sales better than the company?? Are the store hours an indicator of how well a store is doing??

[ClownLoach]

Brookfield essentially brought in JCPenney because they wanted to fill out their Anchors at Willowbrook Mall.

Brookfield and Simon essentially bought JCPenney to keep their anchors full nationwide. If JCPenney closed it would have bankrupted Brookfield, Simon, and others as mall rents are contingent on anchor spaces being occupied. Tenants may see rents reduced by as much as 90% if the anchors required in their lease close. New leases generally don't have these carve outs, but at the time of the JCPenney bankruptcy it was cheaper to spend a billion or so to buy it then lose several billion each year in rent concessions. JCPenney is basically an outlet mall in a department store building now selling the same Authentic Brands corporation made-for-outlet product. I expect that any future Brookfield mall where JCPenney isn't present and a Macy's or other department store closes will see a "new" JCPenney open there immediately too. Again even if the JCPenney store loses money it will be less of a loss than they will incur on rent concessions for absent anchor business. Once all the leases are cycled through and nobody has these large penalties for absent anchors anymore then I expect we will see Brookfield and Simon sell their interests in JCPenney to private equity or someone else who will gradually wind it down like Sears by selling off the real estate a store at a time for redevelopment into other chains, food courts, markets like Whole Foods, etc. I am also noticing that the various Authentic Brands owned outlet stores are clearing out of the outlet malls now to drive more business to JCPenney stores that carry the same product already too. Many outlet malls are in better quality tourist areas where they can be redeveloped into hotels and resorts. I expect to see some of the outlet malls like Carlsbad close in the next few years and become apartments, hotels etc.

Are the stores JCPenney was originally going to close that stayed open (Inland Center, Acadiana Mall, Layton Hills Mall, Sun Valley Mall, River Oaks Center) doing better than they were in 2019, and gaining in sales better than the company?? Are the store hours an indicator of how well a store is doing??

Most retailers now purchase consultant services that determine the store hours for them. Hours are not indicative of performance, sometimes the opposite. I've worked for companies where my "better" stores were determined to be able to open later or close earlier, while lower performing stores were asked to extend their hours to attempt to capture more business.

I don't know anything about those malls but if they're owned by Brookfield or Simon then that's why the stores didn't close.

[storewanderer]

Most retailers now purchase consultant services that determine the store hours for them. Hours are not indicative of performance, sometimes the opposite. I've worked for companies where my "better" stores were determined to be able to open later or close earlier, while lower performing stores were asked to extend their hours to attempt to capture more business.

I don't know anything about those malls but if they're owned by Brookfield or Simon then that's why the stores didn't close.

JCP doesn't even stay open during the full hours of the mall in Reno most of the time, including during the holidays. I don't think the store has any performance problems at least by JCP standards I am sure it does pretty well. I find that ironic Simon owns the mall yet their JCP doesn't even operate during full mall hours. The Forever 21 near it stays open longer hours (mall hours).

Hours have become a touchy topic as retailers have staffing challenges and along with theft and other issues. Many employees just do not want to do a 10 PM closing shift anymore. It is questionable from a safety perspective if having 2-3 employees in a 35k square foot box from 7 PM to 10 PM is actually safe especially as you have the evening tasks like trash, restroom cleaning, cart gathering, etc. which takes someone out of the public sales floor areas for extended time periods. If you do few sales after 8 PM or 9 PM, is it really worth being open? Before COVID many retailers held to being open until 10 PM but since then you are seeing more and more retailers reducing hours. The main idea for the big box stores staying open until 10 PM was they hoped to capture the "after the mall closes" type traffic since most malls closed at 9 PM for years.

As someone who goes to stores at night I loved the old 10 PM closings for the various retailers but I understand the reasons why they do the shorter hours and I just plan accordingly. That also means some stores I do not go into as often as I used to.