JCPenney closing stores but not in Joliet

Joliet will survive a round of store closings announced by JCPenney Company on Thursday.

JCPenney said it will close 30 stores this year, but did not say where.

Wherever they are, they won’t be in Joliet, according to an email from Dana Harrington in the corporate communications office.

“We are not making the full list of store closures publicly available, but I can confirm the store in Joliet, IL, will not be closing,” Harrington said.

The future of the Joliet store could be crucial to the Louis Joliet Mall, which lost two of its four anchors in the past year.

Carson's closed in August, and Sears closed in January. Both had been original anchors since the mall opened in 1978.

The JCPenney store also is an original anchor. The other original anchor was Marshall Field & Co. until it was acquired by Macy’s.

JCPenney in a quarterly report said it will close 18 “full-line stores” in addition to three closings previously announced in January. Another nine “ancillary home and furniture stores” will close.

The company said it will reallocate resources “to locations and initiatives that offer the greatest long-term value potential.”

JCPenney said same-store sales for the fourth quarter ending Feb. 2 were down 4 percent compared with the same quarter the previous year. The company reported a net loss of $255 million for 2018.

CEO Jill Soltau said JCPenney will focus on “key businesses such as women’s apparel, active apparel, special-sized apparel and fine jewelry.”