Why Nobody Shops at JCPenney Anymore, and the 2012 Mistake

JCPenney: what happened to JCPenney, and why nobody seems to shop there anymore. In the year before 2012 JCPenney sold 17.26 billion dollars of goods. In 2012 it sold 12.98 billion and lost 985 million. The cause was one decision. A new chief executive from Apple threw out the coupons and nearly all the sales and put one everyday price on everything, and the shoppers who had come for the hunt stopped coming. Walter goes back to where it began, a Golden Rule store opened in Kemmerer, Wyoming on April 14, 1902, and follows it into the mall, onto the catalog desk and up to 2,053 stores in 1973. Then the price game the old JCPenney played, why it worked, and what happened when it stopped. The end of the story is the part most people haven't heard: who owns JCPenney today. The store is still open. This is what's left of it and why. Chapters 0:00 JCPenney's 2012 Mistake in One Number 2:15 1902: A Golden Rule Store in Kemmerer, Wyoming 5:00 How JCPenney Moved Into the Mall 7:45 The JCPenney Catalog and the Sale Game 10:40 Ron Johnson and the Fair and Square Price 13:40 What Happened to JCPenney Sales in 2012 16:30 2020: Bankruptcy and the Landlords Who Bought It 18:30 Who Owns JCPenney Now 21:00 Is JCPenney Still Open? The Stores Left in 2026 ---------------------------------------------- Disclaimer : About this channel: Walter's Vanished America is an independent research production. Some narration is delivered with AI voice assistance and some illustrative imagery is AI-generated or creatively restored — all such material is disclosed via YouTube Studio's altered-or-synthetic-content checkbox. Historical figures, dates, and corporate timelines are researched from public records, trade journals, and viewer correspondence; dramatised passages are clearly framed as reconstructions, not interviews. Archival photographs are used under fair-use for historical commentary and education. This channel is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any company referenced in its videos.