Thread Number: 32237
What about JC PENNEY Appliances? --And WESTERN AUTO, too? |
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Post# 486229   1/3/2011 at 23:01 (4,833 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
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So what about the line of JC Penney appliances made by the Hotpoint division of GE? (Although I'm sure their gas ranges are by another manufacturer & their side x side refrigerators w/o Hotpoint's ice chute (& later ice chute & water disp.) I think were made by Westinghouse...) They started off as PENNCREST, too...
But from what year to what year were they named/made? I've seen a few old magazine ads featuring them... Rarely to never have I seen any in person, though... Were they not as successful as Ward's or Sears? Even LESS frequently have I ever seen Western Auto's WIZARD CITATION appliances (most likely a part of the appliance would be shown in CONSUMER REPORTS, such as a drum or a tub)... Who manufactured them, & little that I know about the company, when WAS "the W/A era"? -- Dave |
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Post# 486270 , Reply# 1   1/4/2011 at 06:19 (4,832 days old) by joelippard (Hickory)   |   | |
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Post# 486339 , Reply# 3   1/4/2011 at 14:10 (4,832 days old) by nurdlinger (Tucson AZ)   |   | |
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and gave it away 2005 when I got the Fridgemore F/L. In all that time the only repair was replacement of a seized pump. I walked into the appliance parts place with the pump in my hand, and before I reached the counter the guy behind it had a new one up and ready. That's how ubiquitous the GE/Hotpoint design had become. |
Post# 486348 , Reply# 4   1/4/2011 at 15:14 (4,832 days old) by macboy91si (Frankfort, KY)   |   | |
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Sears Portable laundry was a product of Whirlpool, and still is to this day. The current portable is a World Washer and the dryer is the same design used since the 60's. There was a Japanese twin-tub on the market in the 70's, but I am unsure of the maker (Panasonic or Hitachi). Also, early on (1940's-1950's) there were other companies that made small portable washers and dryers (non-automatic), I think Silex/Chicago Electric. The Handy-Hot, which was originally a CE product, was badged as Kenmore among many other lables. -Tim |
Post# 486404 , Reply# 5   1/4/2011 at 18:32 (4,832 days old) by yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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Post# 486513 , Reply# 6   1/5/2011 at 10:17 (4,831 days old) by rollermatic (cincinnati)   |   | |
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Post# 487159 , Reply# 7   1/7/2011 at 21:53 (4,829 days old) by tcox6912 ()   |   | |
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In about 1984-85 Sears sold a compact front load washer with no matching dryer. Does anyone remember this or am I losing my mind? |
Post# 487394 , Reply# 8   1/8/2011 at 19:18 (4,828 days old) by combo52 (50 Year Repair Tech Beltsville,Md)   |   | |
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I do remember that washer I even did a minor service call on one, it was the only one I ever saw out in the field. I don't know who made it but it was labeled as being made in Japan, A number of appliances that Sears sold in the 1980s { including my 1987 induction cooktop, it has never had a problem ] were made by Sanyo.
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Post# 487403 , Reply# 9   1/8/2011 at 20:06 (4,828 days old) by yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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I have the brochure here somewhere....if I find it I will scan it in.....but Kenmore had Frigidaires/W-Westinghouses FL set that stacked....but in the store I seen only the washer, with the window painted over in white....I got my Lady K in 1985 just as the change over to DD.....in 1988 I got my Limited Edition set....between this they were promoting the FL stackable set and was trying to sell that one to me...
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Post# 487478 , Reply# 10   1/9/2011 at 07:58 (4,827 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)   |   | |
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JC Penney in 1957 or so decided to make the move to shopping malls (prior to that they were in downtown shopping districts, or, starting right after the war, moving into suburban strip shopping centers. There's a Harvard Business School (I think) case on JCP in the 50s. Anyway, they were putting up these shiny 200k sqft stores and needed more to put into them than just clothes and dry goods (which filled up 50k sqft strip center stores...the store at Hampton Village, Missouri near St. Louis was their prototype). Anyway, they needed to get a full line into these stores (plus provide a place for men to shop) so they moved into tools and white/brown goods. Interestingly, though, they did this in a relatively focused manner into the suburban areas of the 50 largest metro areas, leaving their small town base untouched (which provided them the cash to do the switch). Also, they set up a credit card business (again, to allow them to complete with the other full-line department stores.
They also bought a catalog company in the early 60s as well (they weren't in the catalog business before that). Apparently that catalog company was quite advanced/computerized in comparison to Sears/Wards/Spiegel. It was more a soft-goods catalog, though (they didn't put as much of the hardlines in as Sears/Wards did), but they did roll it out nationwide (it wasn't much of a leap for the small dry-goods stores to put in a catalog desk. So you had new buildings, a credit business, and a need to fill those stores...which launched their white/brown goods program. They had to find partners for each line of appliance/TV/radio, and probably had a tough time of it (think of the options for laundry alone around 1960...Whirlpool...spoken for. Westinghouse...weird and already working with Wards. Maytag...too premium to be a full-line provider in competition with Sears/Wards. Frigidaire---too weird and unique. Beam et al...spoken for (Western Auto/Gambles/AMC). Kelvinator---too weird. Blackstone...too premium and provincial (remember, they needed to get the entire country covered). So hat in hand they went to GE---appropriate scale, had 2 lines so could mix and match parts to create a unique offering, good locationally (Louisville/Chicago/Milwaukee)... So JCP cobbled together a full-line of white/brown goods which they sold for about 23 years until they got out of the business. They rode the business for about as long as they wanted to (they had better geographic coverage than Wards, and were better financed, but they came at being a nationwide retailer differently than Sears (Sears started with hard goods everywhere and added softlines where warranted--JCP did the reverse. We had a neighbor who had an avocado JC Penney washing machine. (I saw a cute youtube recently for an 89 year old woman who has a 1962 Mercury Comet with about a million miles on it...she bought a JCPenney battery in 1980 or so with a lifetime warranty and keeps getting a new battery (now from Firestone) every several years). Each of the catalogue houses/buying groups had a similar calculation to make...which manufacturer of white/brown goods gives us the best coverage of our store/customer base. |
Post# 487754 , Reply# 12   1/9/2011 at 21:19 (4,827 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)   |   | |
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Post# 487849 , Reply# 14   1/10/2011 at 05:48 (4,826 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)   |   | |
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Yeah, Cincinnati was a definite gap in JCP's coverage...I noticed that when I was there for college in 1985..they had a store in Florence, KY but none at the big Ohio malls. That's since been fixed as the department store business consolidated (Cincinnati had 4 department stores as late as 1987...Shillito Rikes/Lazarus, L.S. Ayres, McAlpins and Elder-Beerman.)
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Post# 487941 , Reply# 15   1/10/2011 at 14:03 (4,826 days old) by whirlcool (Just North Of Houston, Texas)   |   | |
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I know Penncrest also had console stereos and television sets. I wonder who made those for JCP? |
Post# 487953 , Reply# 16   1/10/2011 at 14:54 (4,826 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.)   |   | |
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Post# 487956 , Reply# 17   1/10/2011 at 14:55 (4,826 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
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Post# 488011 , Reply# 18   1/10/2011 at 17:24 (4,826 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)   |   | |
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Post# 488012 , Reply# 19   1/10/2011 at 17:27 (4,826 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)   |   | |
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AMC was Associated Merchandising...a combination of several of the larger local non-competitive department stores to create a brand to go against Sears/Wards/JCP/...
I think Hudsons was an AMC affiliate in the 50s-60s. No particular connection with American Motors. May Department Stores in St. Louis had Duracrest as their analogous line. |
Post# 488055 , Reply# 20   1/10/2011 at 20:07 (4,826 days old) by yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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Post# 488060 , Reply# 21   1/10/2011 at 20:11 (4,826 days old) by yogitunes (New Jersey)   |   | |
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