At a recent Price City Council Meeting, community member Bob Tanner stood before the council and made a simple, yet strong request: to assist him in doing what he could to save the local JC Penney store from closing.
Tanner spoke with a woman who receives all of the complaints and letters for the company. She stated that the letters received from our local community have all been forwarded to the CEO of JC Penney. Tanner had hoped to have one concentrated effort as a community to save the store.
The local JC Penney building itself is an icon, according to tanner. “When you drive down our main street, only two buildings stand out as an icon,” Tanner said, “The theater and Penney’s.”
JC Penney opened in Price in May of 1906 and has been a landmark for the people of the community ever since. The reason for closing the store is believed to be sinking sales. Tanner was in the belief that it would be a mistake for the company to close the store.
“I would rather have us say we did everything that we could instead of we should have tried harder,” stated Tanner.
Instead of separate letters going to the CEO of the company, Tanner believed that names should have been signed and sent. He requested from the council members permission to put sign-up sheets all over the city in various locations.
Kathy Hanna-Smith, Price City Council member, had a high interest in the project and volunteered her time to personally assist Tanner. The duo met on Monday afternoon and got to work trying to save the building and business. However, Tanner and Hanna-Smith were unfortunately informed that the fate of the store has been sealed. They were told that no matter what they try and do, it will be a wasted effort and the closing of the store is a definite event that will occur.