53: Is JCPenney the Best Department Store? (Part 1)

An Old Timey Podcast

True Crime, History, Comedy

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Normie C starts this series with a bold claim: That JCPenney is the best department store ever. This raises a lot of questions. Questions like… Really? Has Norm been to other department stores? Also, really??

In Part 1, Norm loads us up with all the context we’ll ever need about James Cash Penney Jr. A poor farm boy from Missouri, Penney would eventually create a chain of department stores with more than 2,000 locations worldwide. (If you’re able, please listen to this episode while wearing your finest St. John's Bay polo.)

Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from:
Currey, Mary Elizabeth. Creating an American Institution: The Merchandising Genius of J.C. Penney. Dissertations-G, 1993.
Kruger, David Delbert. J.C. Penney: The Man, the Store, and American Agriculture. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.
Penney, James Cash. Fifty Years with the Golden Rule. Harper and Brothers, 1950.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Another one is that Jones is at 27 now. New porcelain paving. Looks like Taralis Nordic. Everyone's going Nordic these days. Is the same fella doing it again? Ooh, dark bath. He's using Darkbath. Seek a jointing compound. Betty's got a trade account at you, son. Terales porcelain paving from £22 per square metre and seek a fast-fits jointing compound at 2999 each. Plus, get 10% off if you buy two tubs.
0:24.2	All trade prices XVAT at 20%. So now you can keep up with the Joneses and the Evanses.
0:31.2	Hear ye, hear ye. You are listening to an old-timey podcast. I'm Normie C. And I'm Kristen Caruso. And in this series,
0:39.6	I'll be talking about the man who started America's greatest apartment store, J.C. Penny.
0:45.5	I don't think that is the best department store. Oh, really? Maybe you'll change your mind after this
0:52.0	series. Well, that seems more like a statement of fact.
0:55.3	It is.
0:56.8	Okay.
0:57.4	I'm the expert here.
0:58.6	I've been doing all the research.
1:00.0	And let me tell you, this man is a great American.
1:03.7	Okay.
1:04.2	But have you researched all the other department stores?
1:06.9	No.
1:07.1	No.
1:07.9	So we can't really declare him the greatest.
1:10.5	I'm sorry to say, I'm sorry to poop all over your parade.
1:13.4	Is that the same?
1:14.0	You say I'm a little biased?
1:15.4	I think so.
1:16.6	I am.
1:17.4	I've talked about J.C. Penny a few times on this podcast.
	...

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