Monmouth Mall sees another chain retail close its doors.
On Wednesday news broke about JCPenney’s decision to close its Monmouth Mall location. JCPenney has been in bankruptcy protection since May 2020. They have been burdened with over $11 billion of debt. In order to emerge from bankruptcy, they have been moving some of their real estate assets into a REIT, which would possibly be able to give them the liquidity necessary to come back to full operation. Because of the pandemic, JCPenney saw its store sales plummet 88%.
This decision to close its Monmouth Mall location is not unique: it follows the recent closure of Lord & Taylor back in 2019. In addition to Lord & Taylor, JCPenney has joined ranks with other New Jersey big retail chains such as Kmart and Sears, who have also closed their doors for good. The business model for these institutions has been severely affected by not only issues of supply chain, and Amazon’s domination of the retail business, but also inability to pay retail workers beyond minimum wage.
Now shoppers are going to be left with even fewer choices when it comes to traditions such as Black Friday, Back to School shopping and other seasonal events.
JCPenney opened its doors in the Monmouth Mall back in 1976. The owners of the Eatontown Mall, Cushman Companies, have approached the Borough Council with the probability that the JCPenney store will be demolished and replaced with apartments. Cushman has owned the Monmouth Mall for a decade and has faced a great deal of pushback on many of its proposals, but with the pandemic and the failure of many retail stores to keep their doors open, the Monmouth Mall appears to be on the threshold of being redefined by its owners.
JCPenney has closed other stores in New Jersey over the past few years, such as in Rio Grande and the Cumberland Mall in Vineland. Also, the JCPenney chain closed its Hamilton Mall store in Mays Landing in 2019.
The Monmouth Mall has seen many different anchor stores that have come and gone. Back in 1987, the Bamberger’s brand was eliminated, and the store was renamed for its parent corporation, Macy’s. Other anchors over the years include Caldor, which replaced Alexander’s in 1986, and Lord & Taylor replaced the former store Hahne’s in 1990, Stern’s replacing Abraham & Straus in 1995 and Boscov’s replacing Stern’s in 2001.
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