Scuttlebiz: Augusta’s J.C. Penney makes the cut

Metro Augusta's brick-and-mortar retail sector dodged a bullet this past week when Augusta's J.C. Penney store didn't appear on the company’s closure list.

The department store chain is shuttering 154 stores this summer, but not ours.

Just last month I noted in this column that the company’s Augusta Mall store had a one in three chance of survival based on the retailer's announcement to shed 30% of its stores nationwide as part of a May 15 bankruptcy filing.

Though I'm not privy to the Plano, Texas-based retailer's location-specific revenue figures, I have to assume the Augusta store is a top performer in the chain.

Otherwise, it would be on the closure list, would it not?

The company said in an Securities and Exchange Commission filing that its surviving stores “represent the highest sales-generating, most profitable, and most productive stores in the network.”

One could make a case that J.C. Penney is also the most "durable" national department store in Augusta. It was the last of the bit mass-market merchandisers to leave downtown when the city's two malls opened within a week of each other in 1978.

As everyone knows, one of the malls is still in operation; the other is 1.3 million tons of recycled-concrete aggregate in waiting.

Augusta's J.C. Penney occupied 732 Broad St. for roughly 30 years before moving to Augusta Mall in 1987 – almost a full decade after the mass retail exodus to the suburbs.

I didn't live here in the mid-1980s (I was a pimply-faced middle schooler in Arizona) so I can only speculate that folks in the metro Augusta area reeeely liked J.C. Penney. And I suppose they still do after all these years. The Augusta Mall location's survival proves that.

And that's ultimately a good thing. Losing the store would have resulted in the layoff of dozens of employees, as well as leave the mall with vacancies in two of its five anchor tenants – the Sears store closed in April.

In my experience, no good comes from losing a major retailer. Aside from fewer consumer choices and the loss of competition, it's very rare for empty big-box stores to attract something generating the same economic impact as the original tenant (Augusta's Sitel client support center in the former Colony Plaza Walmart on Windsor Spring Road is a notable exception).

Augusta should consider itself lucky to have J.C. Penney sticking around for at least a little while longer.

So who wasn't as lucky? Well, regionally, that would be residents in seven Georgia cities, including Atlanta, Athens, Rome and Statesboro. In South Carolina, consumers in six cities are in mourning, including Anderson, Florence, Beaufort and Orangeburg.

If you have friends or relatives in those cities, check with them in a few months and see if they miss having J.C. Penney around. I'd bet quite a few of them will.

IT'S A WASH: Now it's time to play everybody’s favorite game: What's That Building?

Today's mystery is a nearly 5,000-square-foot structure going up near the entrance to the Grand Oaks at Crane Creek apartments and the Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored shopping center on Walton Way Extension.

Here's a hint for all you players: It's a service business filled with windowed machines spinning a frothy mix in near-constant rotation to dispense something everyone needs.

No, it's not a Fat Tuesday.

It's a laundromat. And not just any laundromat, but the seventh location for Lincolnton, Ga.-based Peanut's Laundry.

"Out of all of our locations this has been the most-inquired about," said Katelyn Norman, who manages the self-serve laundry chain's day-to-day operations with her husband Casey.

I'd say Peanut's Laundry is "not your father's laundromat," but it kind of is. The business' unique name is an homage to the childhood nickname of Katelyn's father, Steven "Peanut" Dawkins, whose initial foray into entrepreneurship was the Sparkle Wash chain of self-serve car washes (not to be confused with the Sparkle Express car wash chain, which is owned by a different family).

For those who are perplexed, or possibly even disappointed, that a laundromat is occupying prime real estate along Walton Way Extension (as opposed to, say, another Starbucks or Verizon Wireless store), read on.

The 4,800-square-foot Peanut's location is being designed to appeal to consumers who already own a washer and dryer at home – not just apartment dwellers and people who can't afford their own laundry appliances.

The future laundromat will feature top-of-the-line Dexter brand machines that can make quick work of everything from rugs and comforters to mega amounts of clothing.

Don't worry about bringing a roll of quarters or feeding Hamiltons into a change machine – all machines at the future laundromat at 3723 Walton Way Extension will take plastic payment (only the company's rural laundromats are still coin-op).

"It's for families with children who need to get their laundry done in about an hour – essentially, a mom like myself who has a washer/dryer at home but has multiple children and a husband," she said.

Norman acknowledged that even she has occasionally used Peanut's stores to do her own loads when she's in a hurry or has multiple loads that would take hours at home.

"The new line of express equipment spins faster to get more water out, so everything dries faster," she said. "Sometimes people see laundromats as a negative, but this is for anybody and everybody who wants to get laundry done quicker."

With the 1-acre tract (a former Hebron Court residence) clocking in at $400,000 and the laundry machines costing $20,000 a piece, the family business isn't exactly developing the new Peanut's Laundry for peanuts.

“Hopefully, it will be our nicest location to date,” Norman said.

For all the What's That Building? contestants who guessed wrong, I have no parting gifts to offer, unfortunately. For those who got the correct answer, tell them what they’ve won Don Pardo!

Uh, Don... Don... Are you there, Don?

Well, I guess I'll have to get back to you about that prize.

IT PAYS TO REGISTER: I subscribe to a service that lists companies awarded federal contracts. Exciting, I know.

But I'm always pleased when I see local companies getting a piece of the federal procurement pie, as I was this past week when I noticed Augusta Engine Parts won a $250,000 contract to provide brake shoes to the federal Defense Logistics Agency in Columbus, Ohio.

Seeing that reminded me of the benefits that being a registered contractor can provide. Many companies fail to register and obtain the nine-digit Dun & Bradstreet number, or "DUNS number," that is required to do business with the government.

Most small business advisers, such as the local Small Business Development Centers (which offer free and low-cost service), almost always recommend clients register and obtain a DUNS number. It’s a fairly simple process.

Federal, state and local governments spend a lot of money – as we are all well aware – buying everything from toilet paper to heavy equipment.

This COVID-19 pandemic may curtail the spending for a while, but it’s not going to stop it.

The money is out there. If you own a small business, you should at least be trying to find out how to compete for some of it.