J.C. Penney has started its liquidation sale at Bradford Square after being closed for several weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Hopkinsville store, one of six in Kentucky that will close permanently as part of the company’s debt restructuring plan under bankruptcy protection, will be open noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays.
A store employee said seniors and customers who have health conditions that put them at additional risk related to the coronavirus will be able to enter the store one hour early, at 11 a.m., on Wednesday and Fridays.
Starting out, prices will be reduced 25 to 40 percent on all merchandise. Additional reductions are expected later.
An employee said Friday that the local staff hasn’t been told when the store will close for good. The hair salon was also open Friday.
A sign on the front door says, “We strongly encourage all customers in our store to wear a mask or face covering.”
J.C. Penney is the oldest retail store in Hopkinsville and is now the last department store in town that is not classified as a discount store.
The company has operated in Hopkinsville since the early 1930s and was originally downtown. When the Pennyrile Mall opened on Fort Campbell Boulevard in the early 1970s, J.C. Penney moved out of downtown and became the largest anchor store at the mall, which was later renamed Bradford Square.
(Jennifer P. Brown is the editor and founder of Hoptown Chronicle. Reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
