MUNCY TOWNSHIP -- People walked around the Lycoming Mall in Muncy Township Friday with JCPenney shopping bags. It's one of the mall's anchor stores.
"It's definitely one of my first choices to go and get clothes and discounts and deals on things I use every day," said Tricia Hojnowski of Canton.
But people will not be able to shop at this store much longer, JCPenney announced it is closing 138 stores, including three in our area. The Lycoming Mall's store is one of them.
The other stores are near Towanda in Bradford County and in the Columbia Mall near Bloomsburg.
"It kind of hurts to think that one of the stores I go to is not going to be there in the future to go to," Hojnowski added.
"We'll miss it. It's a great store to buy clothes for even your kids and stuff," said Danielle Wagner of Loganton.
According to a news release from JCPenney, the closures will affect around 5,000 employees. Some people Newswatch 16 spoke with think the store is closing because shopping is moving in a different direction.
"It's kind of sad, but I think a lot of people shop online, and it's a lot more convenient," Rebecca Yablonski of Bloomsburg said.
"A lot of people are doing online shopping and less in stores," said Wagner.
In addition to JCPenney, Macy's announced in the beginning of January that it was also closing its store in the Lycoming Mall.
"To see the people in Macy's today, and they work there and you could tell they felt bad," said Yablonski.
The Macy's store at the Lycoming Mall closes Sunday. As for JCPenney, most of the stores are closing in June with the liquidation process starting next month. Mall officials would not say if that is true for the store in the Lycoming Mall as well.