#Retail March 8

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

There are lots of fantastic stories about entrepreneurs who created RETAIL stores.

For the 30-Day State Trivia Coach4aday Challenge I am attempting to find interesting tidbits about the State of Wyoming. Yesterday I located something that took place in Kemmerer WY. Kemmerer owes its existing to coal mines. From the late 1890’s until the 1960’s, there were active mines throughout the region.

Today Kemmerer has a population of about 2,600 people according to the 2010 census. Yet it was what happened in 1902 that caught my eye about state trivia.

James Cash Penney

James Cash Penney was born in Missouri and died in New York City but what he created in Kemmerer, Wyoming made him wealthy and famous.

J.C. Penney created the RETAIL giant JC Penney. Before his death in 1971 at the age of 95, Penney saw his company grow from a frontier-town dry-goods store in Kennemer WY to the second largest nonfood merchandiser in the country, behind Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Located a great article in Forbes that profiles how the company that Mr. Penney created had to file for bankruptcy in 2020. Did not realize that up until 1962 JC Penney was a cash only merchant. In 1974 they had 354 full-line department stores, 1,289 soft goods stores, 31 Treasury discount stores, and 255 drug stores. Today they only have 670 locations after coming out of bankruptcy.