'PENNEY'S' CATALOG CENTER OPENS

JCPenney's retail outlet in Coudersport is set to close, but it will operate a catalog service in Potter County's county seat beginning Feb. 25. The retailer has chosen Always In Bloom as its local Catalog Service Center. In the inset, the first shipment of catalogs is delivered to Therese Metzger, owner of Always in Bloom.

JCPenney's on Main Street in Coudersport will close this month, but the retailer has announced that it will open a catalog service center just up the street at Always In Bloom Flower & Gift Shoppe on Feb. 25.

Operated by Always In Bloom owner Therese Metzger, the catalog service center will offer telephone and online catalog ordering services. Customers wikll then be able to pick up their order at Always In Bloom or have them delivered directly to their home.

"The catalog sercice center will provide the same services (that were) provided by the catalog desk in our department store," John Flaherty, JCPEnney Catalog Sales Merchant Coordinator said.

JCPenney announced in November that it would close the Coudersport store. It's reason: a "difficult business decision." Since then, the retailer has been liquidating the stores contents by offering huge discounts on what remains. They are also working with liquidators to ensure that everything is gone by the end of February. A dozen jobs will be eliminated due to the closing.

A community plea to keep the store fall on deaf ears at the company's coporate headquarters in Texas.

The Coudersport store has been at the same location since opening in 1930.

JCPenney has evolved over the years. At one time, a massive toy store on the second floor was a virtual mecca for children and Christmas shoppers. In the 1970s, the store expanded its "virtual inventory" through a beefed-up catalogue ordering service that was an immediate success.