Shopping Saturday - J C Penney

Shopping isn't what it used to be.  While I don't shop much anymore, I've almost always relied on J C Penney's for some basic items.  In the past few years, as many of us know, the store changed.  And it's changing again, trying to "win back" some of us who didn't fit into their new customer profile. 

With these changes, I started thinking about the J C Penney when I was little.  What do you remember?

I remember loving to go shopping at J C Penney in Arcadia, California, with my mother and/or grandmother.  No, the shopping wasn’t the best part.  The greatest fun was watching the tubes run on the cables in the ceiling. 

The cashier was upstairs in the back corner.  At the service desks, the sales clerk wrote up a receipt, took the money from the customer, and put both in the tube.  Then, up and away!!  To the cashier.  A few minutes later the change came back down, the merchandise was then bagged and we were off. 

I don’t know when this method was phased out.  However, imagine my surprise to find cables and tubes in a store.  While my husband and I were in Canada.  (We lived there from 1999 to 2001) we went to Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue for breakfast one summer Saturday morning.  After eating we decided to “window” shop.  I believe the store’s name was G D’Aoust.  We went into this department store and there were the cables again.  And, they were still being used.

We walked up the wide, well-worn wood steps to the half balcony, to view the merchandise as well as the little “office” used by the cashier.  What fun and what great memories!!