Store Closing Upsets Town

Civic and business leaders are appealing to J. C. Penney Co. to keep the store open in this northern Nebraska town.

“We hate to see them close. Just the fact of having a J. C. Penney on your Main Street says something for your town,” Gary Ruse, executive vice president of the First National Bank, said last week.

Ruse and as many as 10 others from Gordon and surrounding communities plan to travel to New York this week to plead with Penney executives to spare the Gordon store. The company plans to shut stores in Gordon and five other small Nebraska towns in January because they no longer meet sales and profit goals.

Penney’s has been doing business since 1929 in Gordon, a town of 2,200 people that is celebrating its centennial. Merchants and businessmen say that closing the store, which draws customers from a wide area, will send shoppers elsewhere.

“I think it would have an effect on every business in town because when they come to shop Penney’s they take care of other business in town,” said Vickie Grant, president of the Chamber of Commerce.