JC Penney Maryland store closed, 29 more locations

GAITHERSBURG, MD – JC Penney officials announced Thursday that the flagship store, which has 860 stores across the country, will close 18 stores this year, plus nine furniture and home stores this fall, in addition to closing three stores announced last month. One of the 30 stores on the block is in Maryland.

The reason? The stores that will be botched "need a significant capital, have a positive minimum cash flow … or represent a real estate monetization opportunity," the retailer said in a statement.

JC Penney said it was necessary to reallocate capital resources to "sites and initiatives with the greatest potential for long-term value."

The JCPenney site at the Lake Forest Mall in Gaithersburg is one of the stores to be closed. The remaining stocks will be sold in the coming months. The final closing date should be July 5th, Carter English, spokesman for the retailer for communication and public relations, told Patch English.

For the closing of the furniture and furniture stores, the remaining stocks will be sold during the summer, with the final closing date scheduled for this fall.

Physical stores continue to struggle to increase online sales in what analysts have dubbed the apocalypse of the retail business. The beloved Toys R Us chain was probably the most prestigious retail closure in 2018, but this is just one of the many stores you will not see in 2019.

Toys R Us ceased operations in the United States, closing 735 stores. The iconic toy store has closed all its branches in the US by the end of June, including 17 Toys R Us stores in Maryland: Annapolis, Baltimore, Bel Air, Clarksburg, Clinton, Columbia, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Glen Burnie, Hagerstown, Owings Mills, Oxon Hill, Pasadena, Salisbury, Silver Spring, Towson and Waldorf.

Sears filed for Chapter 11 in October, announcing the closure of 142 unprofitable sites, including five stores in Maryland: Bowie, Columbia and Westminster Sears, as well as Oxon Hill and Prince Frederick Kmart stores. These stores closed at the end of 2018, while the Bethesda Sears closed in February 2019; the latter was announced in November as part of a series of 40 store closures across the country.

This means that 11 Sears stores will remain in the state of Maryland in March 2019: Annapolis, Bel Air, Cumberland, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Glen Burnie, Salisbury, Security Square, Silver Spring, Waldorf and White Marsh.

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