JCPenney Co.

A 3.7% same store sales increase during the holidays has JCPenney feeling good about the continued growth of its business.

The retailer said same store sales during the nine week period from November through December increase 3.7%. That figure was on top of a 3.1% gain during the same period the prior year and was toward the high end of the company’s guidance range which envisioned comp growth of two percent to four percent.

A number of retailers saw changes at the top this past year. Here are the ones I found the most interesting:

Abercrombie & Fitch: The abrupt departure of longtime chief Michael Jeffries presents the former teen powerhouse with an opportunity to bring in a badly needed breath of fresh air.

In his day, no one could touch Jeffries, whose transformation of Abercrombie into a cool, exclusive club is a textbook example of brilliant, holistic retail branding. But Jeffries failed to keep up with the changing times. He seemed blind to the recession.

Home Depot EVP Marvin Ellison will become president of J.C. Penney on November 1 and succeed Mike Ullman as CEO of the department store retailer next August.

With 2014 almost over, another holiday shopping season is drawing to a close. The looming question on everyone’s mind, of course, is whether holiday sales managed to live up to the (mostly) positive holiday forecasts from analysts and retail organizations.   

Janesville, Wisconsin - CBL & Associates Properties announced that DICK'S Sporting Goods and ULTA Beauty are coming to Janesville Mall in Janesville, Wisconsin. The two new stores will be situated in the former JC Penney location. Construction is expected to begin in January with the grand opening for both stores scheduled for fall 2015.  

Plano, Texas –  Hoping to boost its holiday mobile traffic, J.C. Penney has enhanced its digital presence, including an all-new JCPenney iPhone app. Along with improved navigation, faster browsing and easier access to coupons, one notable feature of the JCPenney app is the ability for customers to scan the barcode of an item to find its availability on jcpenney.com   

It’s been another big year in terms of new store openings in New York City. Here are my top 10 faves:

  New York - J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Rite Aid, Meijer and Sears rank as the best retailers for Black Friday deals, according to a survey by personal finance social network WalletHub.  The survey shows that Penney has the highest overall discount rate at 65%, while Big Lots, at 24%, and Costco, at 21%, have the lowest. WalletHub surveyed 5,525 deals from the 2014 Black Friday ad scans of 21 of the biggest U.S. retailers. Here is a quick summary of some of the key findings.

Plano, Texas – J.C. Penney Company Inc. has provided an equity inducement award of 2.07 million restricted stock units (RSUs) to Marvin Ellison, the company’s president and CEO-designee, in connection with his employment. Penney previously disclosed this award in connection with the announcement of Ellison`s appointment in October.

J.C. Penney is in the final phase of its turnaround and the company’s stores are customers’ preferred destination for great style, quality and value, according to company CEO Mike Ullman.

Those comments came after J.C. Penney said its third quarter same store sales were flat and it forecast a fourth quarter comp increase of 2% to 4%. Total sales in the quarter ended Nov. 1 declined slightly to $2.76 billion from $2.78 billion.