Retailers around the United States are continuing to struggle financially in the midst of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic and one of the biggest chains is downsizing as a result.

JC Penney, just days after receiving $500 million in cash collateral from a bankruptcy court in Texas to pay employees and vendors, has announced its plans to close nearly one-third of its stores over the next two years.

According to ABC News, the company filed a document filed with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, Monday, outlining plans to shut the doors at 192 of its locations by February of 2021 to be followed by an additional 50 store closings in 2022.

The 242 stores represent nearly 30 percent of JC Penney's 846 stores nationwide.

A list of which locations will close as part of the restructuring has not yet been released, which means the future of stores like the one at the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls is still very much up in the air.

J.C. Penney began as the Golden Rule Store in Wyoming in 1902 and had as many as 2,053 stores in the early 1970s.

The company began closing stores in 2001 and followed that up with more closures in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018.

Just last week the company that owns Gordmans announced it was filing for bankruptcy and may not be reopening all of its stores after the Coronavirus pandemic.

The status of the Sioux Falls Gordmans location has yet to be determined.


Plaza 41 @ 41st & Western, Sioux Falls

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