History of J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

J.C. Penny is the second largest of all the United States department stores. The nearly thousand stores are dispersed around the United States and even in Puerto Rico and Mexico. J.C. Penny has been around for over 100 years. According to International Directory of Company Histories, “James Cash Penney started his first retail store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a small mining town.” (Grant, 1997) The store has since transformed to more of fashion-oriented retail store instead of a wide variety of goods. Since their refocus of the company, JCPenny’s has been able to compete in the very harsh market with a lot of competitors such as Sears, Walmart and Kmart. The internet shopping options provided by JCPenny has been showing great growth for the company. In fact the company is so well known because of its ability to adapt to the new forms of sales such as online.

JCPenny SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
* JCPenny has a long history in the business * Brand Recognition * Locations nationwide that are in nearly every mall * Exclusive popular brand names that are not available other places
Weaknesses:
* Decline in comparable store sales * Decrease in popularity due to competitors * Changing business strategies a little too often * Lack of coupons
Opportunities:
* Growing internet sales * Exploring specific markets such as maternity and/or big & tall * Attracting new customers through new business models * Complete renovation of marketing strategies * New exclusive private label brands
Threats:
* Rising labor costs in America * Increasing competition in the industry of fashion retail * Internet customers comparing prices and finding a less priced good * Weak consumer from a weak economy

JCPenny’s Principal Competitors:
The top competitors of JCPenny