JCPenney's CEO Talks Meeting With Trump, Store Closures

President Donald Trump and members of Congress met with a group of retail CEOs earlier this week and details of what was discussed behind closed doors have been scarce. On Friday, CNBC spoke with J C Penney Company Inc JCP's CEO Marvin Ellison who was present at the meeting.

Ellison told CNBC's Courtney Reagan that the president was attentive to what the retail executives had to say. Trump listened closely, asked questions and took questions from the group. However, he did not give any sort of indication of where the administration stands on various tax proposals, most notably a proposed border tax.

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Ellison did, however, suggest that it is not a "foregone conclusion" that a proposed border tax and other related legislative items will be passed. Moreover, the executive was satisfied with the type of questions they were asked by the administration as it concerned the impact on consumers.

Down To Business

Ellison also commented on JCPenney's earnings report which also contained a store closure announcement.

The executive told CNBC that the company had a "very under developed" omnichannel strategy and it was "hard for me to understand how many stores we needed until we began to roll out buy online, pick up in store."

He added it would have been "reckless" to close stores without the buy online pick up in store option in place. Also, the store closures were meant to coincide with an early retirement plan that was put in place across the company.

Image Credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (Donald Trump) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons