CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The feelings are unanimous– everyone is sad to see the 42-year-old JCPenney’s store at the Charleston Town Center Mall go.
Charleston resident Shawna Lewis said its closure marks a dark time for the mall.
“It’s very sad, it’s depressing, you know, to see all of the stores leaving, JCPenney has been here since the beginning, and it’s just a sad experience,” Lewis said.
JCPenneys is the last anchor store at the Charleston Town Center that opened in November 1983—JCPenney itself opened that same year. They announced in January they would be permanently closing their doors in the mall on May 25.
Closing signs were visible on all of its entry-way doors Friday, some that read “last three days.”
Another Charleston resident, Vanessa Reynolds said this closure comes as an inconvenience to everyone here in Charleston and surrounding areas.
“I’m really sorry that the JCPenneys is leaving right now in the Charleston area, now I’m going to have to go all the way to Huntington to shop, and I had pretty good bargains when I came here,” Reynolds said.
Other signs read that the entire store is currently 90% off.
Hurricane resident Connie Sergent said while it’s sad to see the store close at the Town Center, where she frequently does her shopping, the bright side is at least the extremely slashed prices right now.
“I hate it, I really do, and we weren’t really informed until later on this week that the prices were so good, anyway, we got one of the last days of it, so we’re happy,” Sergent said.
Reynolds said that many people still shopped at this store, and that’s the most unfortunate part, but it just wasn’t enough.
“Not enough people are coming here to shop, I mean, they’re either going down to Huntington or they’re going to Beckley or something like that,” Reynolds said.
Lewis said there’s not many places you can go to shop within walking distance in downtown Charleston anymore, and not everyone has a vehicle where they can go out to South Ridge to shop all of the time.
She also said that not everyone likes to shop online or even has the means to.
“Sometimes you can’t return things, you know, and some people are not savvy enough, they just don’t shop online, so this was a place we could come, try on clothes, and return things if you need to,” she said. 
Sergent said she hopes the JCPenney can stay open in the Huntington Mall at least, as options in the state are slowly dwindling.
“This one’s closing and we really won’t have any other Penneys except the ones out of state,” Sergent said.
And, Lewis added that everyone who’s from the area can agree that the mall used to be a great place to come and shop.
“It brings back great memories of childhood and to see it closing, it’s just sad, I think this is the end for the mall,” Lewis said.
The JCPenney’s store at the Town Center was among the 7 to close across the country this weekend. Other locations include San Bruno, California, Denver, Colorado, Pocatello, Idaho, Topeka, Kansas, Newington, New Hampshire, and Asheville, North Carolina.
The store officially closes this Sunday.