Second Largest J.C. Penney in Connecticut to Close

Soon the State of Connecticut will only have eight J.C. Penney stores after the company announced plans to close the state’s second largest store located at the Westfield Meriden Square Mall in Meriden, CT. It is the only J.C. Penney in New England that is set to be closed in a list of 33 “underperforming” stores, according to J.C. Penney. 

MyRecordJournal.com reports that the store was an original anchor store when the mall first opened in 1971. 

In a press release from J.C. Penney, the closings will save the company approximately $65 million and will eliminate approximately 2,000 positions. 

“Remaining inventory in the affected stores will be sold over the next several months, with final closings expected to be completed by early May.” 

According to the Directory of Major Malls 19th edition, the 164,000-square-foot, two-level store ranks as number two only smaller than the 191,000-square-foot, two-level, store at the West Farms Mall in West Hartford, CT.

Further down the list is the third and fourth largest stores located in Westfield Malls in Milford at the Connecticut Post Mall and Trumbull at the Trumbull Square Mall. They are both two levels and are 137,000 square feet each.

The two floor 128,000-square-foot store at Manchester, CT’s Buckland Hills Mall ranks fifth while the two-level 126,000-square-foot store at the Brass Mill Center Mall in Waterbury ranks six. 

The two floor 90,000-square-foot store in Waterford CT’s Crystal Mall ranks seventh and the one-level 28,300-square-foot store in Torrington Commons is officially the chain’s smallest store.

This past August, the chain shuttered it’s 35,522 square foot one-level store at the East Brook Mall in Mansfield.

According to the Hartford Courant, the chain previously closed it’s one-level catalog store in 2002 in Manchester and two years prior, in 2000, closed stores at the Enfield Square Mall and North Haven.