I agree with you; Penny’s homophilia is only part of the story here. In addition to substandard quality, their selection is limited. Last time I went through one of their stores (about a year ago) I didn’t see anything I liked. So I didn’t buy anything. By the way, this was in one of Indianpolis’ busiest malls. The Penny’s store was dead as a mausoleum.
You can bet the Businessinsider site will be touting the “new and improved” JCP right up to its disappearance from the malls. And its demise will be blamed widely on... customers. Not the CEO and his crew, and not those who hired him to break the company and make something else of it. I’m unhappy as an old ex-customer who outfitted our family for many years in this store and who then got the clear message I was not the customer they had in mind anymore.