Lafayette and Other Louisiana Locations of JC Penney to Stay Open

The demise of several JC Penney Department Stores in Louisiana has been put on hold. The company announced on Friday that JC Penney stores in Lafayette, Metairie, Shreveport, and other locations across the state were no longer on the company's list of planned closures. 

As the parent company for the Plano Texas-based company finalized a deal last week to avoid bankruptcy it became clear that none of Louisiana's 13 JC Penney Outlets are on the chopping block any longer. However, that chopping block list of proposed store closures is still quite dubious with more than 150 stores across the country earmarked for closure.

The company has already laid off about 30,000 employees nationwide over the course of 2020. The company also reported it had accumulated almost $4 billion in debt. That was the catalyst for the need to restructure and consider shuttering locations across the country.

While company officials did say JC Penney stores across Louisiana would remain open. They would not comment on whether or not there would be a reduction in workforce at those remaining stores. That will remain to be seen as details of the companies settlement to avoid bankruptcy becomes public.

The struggles for retailers such as JC Penny have become more and more common as the coronavirus pandemic has limited shoppers for much of the year. Even before the pandemic, many classic "brick and mortar" operations were struggling to deal with competition from online retailers.

In this year alone Nieman Marcus, J.Crew, Stein Mart, and a host of other national retail chains have either closed locations or sought bankruptcy protection.