Businessman James Cash Penney points to a picture of his first store in Kemmerer, Wyoming. JCPenney started in 1902 as a dry-goods store called the Golden Rule Store. At the time, Penney's business practices were revolutionary. He banned haggling, a common practice at the time, to keep prices low. And he encouraged his employees to "serve the public to its ultimate satisfaction." The company changed its name a decade later, opened many more stores and went public in 1929.
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In 1951, the company had $1 billion in sales for the first time.
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Construction workers build a JCPenney store in Denver in 1956.
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A couple of store managers, George F. McDougall and Graham Vaughn, confer at a Denver location in 1963.
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Shoppers hurry across an intersection in front of a JCPenney store in Denver in 1964.
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Russell Martin, a store manager in Denver, shows a sword to a couple that won it as a special promotion in 1968.
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A JCPenney store is seen in Quincy, Illinois, in 1969. JCPenney reached its peak number of stores in 1973, when it operated just over 2,000 locations nationwide.
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A woman does a double take after seeing what she thought was a mannequin move in a JCPenney window in 1972.
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A JCPenney exchange desk is busy on the day after Christmas in 1980.
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Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana visit a JCPenney store in Springfield, Virginia, during a trip to the United States in 1985.
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Dominique Key, left, and Lesley Ann Pont shop for shoes at a JCPenney store in Thousand Oaks, California, in 1996.
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Customers shop at a new JCPenney store in New York in 2009.
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A customer goes down an escalator at a JCPenney store in Westminster, Colorado, in 2009.
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Gabbie Juka, left, and Allison Funk share a laugh as they relax on a bed at a JCPenney store in Mentor, Ohio, in 2010.
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Customers walk past mannequins at a JCPenney store in New York in 2013.
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Customers shop inside a JCPenney store in Glendale, California, in 2013.
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Mannequins of different shapes and sizes are displayed in a store window in New York in 2014.
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JCPenney shoppers view discount merchandise in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in 2017. Since the fall of 2011, the company has reported only five profitable quarters -— all of them in the holiday shopping season.
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JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau speaks during an interview in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2019. The company has had four different CEOs in the past 10 years.
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Parking lots are empty in front of a JCPenney store in Hayward, California, in March 2020. Stores were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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