The Chinese restaurant on the right must have been a flop -- it wasn't yet open when I was there in 2021, and it has already closed (it does look like it did open at some point). I appreciate how the library and JCPenney, designed decades apart, have similar grid-like facades, and even the 90s ceiling seems to match!
I recently shopped at JCPenney recently for the first time since their bankruptcy some years back aside from one time last year that I took a family member to the JCPenney Optical Department. Well, the first thing I noticed when I walked into JCPenney this year is that the optical department had closed! It had a sign on it saying that it closed permanently on October 31st and that the nearest JCPenney Optical was in Meyerland, which is not all that close to here. There are actually only two JCP Opticals in the Houston area now that the Willowbrook and The Woodlands ones have closed recently.
ReplyDeleteI say only two, but the entire state of Washington only had two in recent times, and one of those, the Spokane Valley Mall one, closed recently as well. That means South Hill Mall in Puyallup is the only JCPenney Optical left in WA. Looking at things, it seems there are actually two JCPs at South Hill Mall as it seems the women's department is actually in the mall's old Mervyn's. That's strange, I've seen malls with split Macy's and Dillard's before (and Houston's The Galleria once had two full Macy's), but I don't think I've ever seen a split JCPenney!
But, anyway, the amount of foot traffic at my local JCPenney was reminiscent of what Sears was getting in the late 2010s even though it was on Black Friday weekend. Granted, the amount of traffic at the whole mall was basically what I'd expect during a weekend in June. It certainly didn't look as busy as it would have been a decade ago or earlier! Maybe that's to be expected these days, but it is still a bit of a surprise to me.
I didn't realize JCPenney still had optical departments -- it's been a long time since I've seen one!
DeleteI'm pretty surprised South Hill is the last one standing, but that store must be doing pretty good for JCPenney to still have their split-store setup there. The only time I ever visited that mall was when the Sears was closing, and I remember it seeming pretty sad at that time, but it seems like things have picked up since then, with new tenants having completely filled the old Sears and a new hotel being built in the parking lot. Pierce County's malls are doing surprisingly well these days.