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BENTON TOWNSHIP – It's been 94 years since Southwestern Michigan has no J.C. Penney store.
This came back to reality Friday when J.C. Penney in The Orchards Mall closed after 40 years and nearly 95 years in Benton Harbor by counting the old downtown store. The closure also took away the last anchor store at the mall.
Friday's official closing was a melancholy affair.
By avoiding the ubiquitous seagulls, people were entering and leaving the store looking for last-minute offers. Some left empty handed, while others parked trucks up to the store entrance to load display racks and shelves.
A shop assistant, Kristine from Benton Harbor (who chose not to give her last name) was picking up tables that had been used for the displays.
"I have been here a long time. It's a very good place to work, "she said.
Kristine stated that the employees had the opportunity to transfer stores, although she chose not to accept it. She said some of the employees were transferred.
"It's very sad, we're like a family there," she said, "everyone coming in seems to be sad we're leaving."
Rose Thomas was one of those sad customers. She stopped at the mall on Friday with her daughter when they saw the large closing sign on the building.
"I just wanted to go there and have a look," she said. "I was sad when I got to the door, I felt like crying because J.C. Penney has been with us for a long time, it's really sad to see him go."
Thomas called Penney one of the best stores in Benton Harbor.
Her daughter said she was a teenager, she would order items in Penney's catalog.
"We love these jewels. Zales also closed in the mall. It was a beautiful store. What are we going to have? Look at the birds. It's terrible, "she said. "It was a very good store. I would have liked them to stay.
Members of a Chicago family who visit the area each summer were very surprised to see that the store was closing. They said that somewhere they come every year.
Peggy Lemire, of St. Joseph, confided that she was picking up something from one of the mall's other stores when she thought about stopping at J.C. Penney on Friday.
Lemire stated that J.C. Penney was her favorite store and that she frequented it once a month or so.
"I was so excited about it," she said. "Before, there was no other place to shop than South Bend, Holland or Kalamazoo."
Lemire said she was sad about the closure because she was so used to being there.
"I just hope they'll do something with the mall," she said. "He's just sitting here."
J.C. Penney opened in downtown Benton Harbor in 1925. At the time, the department store was spreading throughout the country during a period of explosive growth. It was transferred to the Orchards Mall when it opened in 1979.
The mall opened with flagship stores Penney's and Sears. Sears closed in 2009.
The loss of Penney's, announced in March, comes one year after the loss of the Carson's Mall, originally Elder-Beerman, which has been the main store since 1992.
The local J.C. Penney store is one of 27 stores in 13 US states closed this year. The company has closed more than 200 underperforming stores since 2014, while US retailers continue to face a major upheaval due to stiff competition from online competition.
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