THE JC PENNEY store in Westminster Mall will close in November.
By a staff writer
Somewhere, John Cash Penney, who started his business empire with a meat market in1898, is weeping.
The national chain of moderately priced department stores that carried his name will shrink by one more in November as his company announced the closing of its store in Westminster.
According to an Aug. 18 the filing with the federal government, a letter by JCPenney OpCo LL has been completed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act providing notification to employees at the store in the Westminster Mall that 76 workers will be effected, starting on Nov. 10, including 19 cashiers, 16 sales floor associates and the store’ s general manager.
The store will remain open to the general public through Nov. 16 with the final closing on Friday, Nov. 21.
Employees of the store may seek employment at the other Penney stores in Orange County in Santa Ana and Brea.
The closing will represent a financial blow to the City of Westminster, as the mall saw taxable sales for the previous fiscal year (2023-2024) drop by 15.6 percent.
A plan to renovate the Mall as the mixed-use Bolsa Pacific project has been outlined, but complete final approval has not been given.
JC Penney was once a leading retailer in Orange County with stores in Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Orange.