Amazon may turn dying JC Penney and Sears stores into warehouses

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This market was JC Penney's and Sears's for the asking.

Amazon may turn dying JC Penney and Sears stores into warehouses

Malls may regain some relevance in the internet era.

Jon Fingas, @jonfingas
1h ago

The department stores that anchor shopping malls have struggled to survive in the face of online shopping, but those spaces might find a new lease on life through their greatest foe. Wall Street Journal sources claim Amazon is in talks with mall owner Simon Property Group to convert some of its department store spaces into fulfillment centers. It’s not certain how many stores would become warehouses, but Amazon is reportedly looking at either stepping into empty JC Penney and Sears stores or else buying locations that are still in use.

Amazon is also said to be talking to multiple mall owners about putting its future low-cost grocery stores in former JC Penney spaces, although those won’t necessarily come to Simon-owned malls. The talks about fulfillment centers have been going on for “months” and predate the COVID-19 pandemic, the sources said.

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[LisaM]

1. This sounds horrible.

It's like a fresh dystopia.

[jimfields33]

6. Better then sitting empty.

Lots of jobs for communities as well.

[LisaM]

7. They closed up a Penney I could walk to a year ago.

I could see.out my window. How is a warehouse with trucks coming and going in its place an improvement?

[jimfields33]

9. Workers, tax revenue for city

Many positives and maybe a negative for view.

[LisaM]

10. I live in a neighborhood.

It's not about a view. It's about the loss of walkability, of having nearby retail, and certainly about not having trucks pulling in and out all day.

I don't think they'll put a warehouse in this spot, but having warehouses replace the stores in our towns is no way to live in the long run.

Shopping locally brings more tax revenue to towns than online shopping. It protects jobs.

[Sherman A1]

11. As you said the JC Penny is gone

Should a amazon facility replace that retail outlet it will mean some jobs for folks. Those Retail jobs are gone, they were going anyway amazon or not and they are not coming back no matter the amount of wishful thinking we want to use

You may lose some walkable direction from your location, but I suspect that there is another direction that you can choose or other options available.

Times change, Retail changes, it always has and always will.

[LisaM]

12. You suspect wrong.

I moved here (to my current apartment, when our small rental house was sold by the landlord) in large part because of the walkability/shopping factor, which the online industry and the city of Seattle have pretty systematically dismantled in the last four years. In this housing market, moving is terribly expensive, new places would cost more than the exorbitant rent I'm paying now, and I don't believe there's anywhere I can go where I can live and walk to things the way I did. It's very, very unfortunate. And, frankly, I don't want Amazon to "win" at this. I want our government to protect local businesses better, but in this corporate town, Amazon rules the roost and no one cares about the rest of us.

You and I just have different ideas of the way things should be, I think.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Well,Amazon does own a

large Wholesale Grocery operation. So,this may come sooner than later.

[BlueTsunami2018]

3. I'm currently working on an Amazon warehouse.

In Philadelphia. They have plans for thirty more in the area. Soon they’ll have a monopoly on everything.

[Sherman A1]

5. Personally I have really cut back on my Amazon shopping

Prices seem to have really gone up and turn around times have slowed significantly. The website is good for window shopping but that’s about it anymore.

[LisaM]

8. I can't cut back from nothing.

I have never gotten anything from them and I never will. The second.they bought Whole Foods To stopped going there.

They were turning Seattle into a shopping desert before the pandemic, and it seems that's their goal with the whole world. It burns me up that they'll benefit from all this misery while more brick and mortar stores go under.

[Sherman A1]

4. Well, something needs to happen

To those stores. This may not be what many prefer, but sitting empty likely is not going to provide jobs, pay rent or taxes.