Let’s stop dancing around it people — 117-year old JCPenney has one full leg in the grave. It’s not a zombie retailer like former competitor Sears, but that’s the direction after years of mismanagement.

The sad thing here, among many others: J.C. Penney’s new CEO Jill Soltau is stellar. A true retail veteran that should be leading a healthy brand to its next level of greatness. Unfortunately, her decades of experience may be no match for a deeply tarnished brand, a highly economically strapped consumer base and powerful digital shopping trends that have made numerous malls tantamount to barren wastelands.

Unfortunate.

J.C. Penney is in need of money fast

The latest signal that J.C. Penney is entering treacherous waters in 2019 arrived Wednesday. J.C. Penney said it would stop selling major appliances on February 28 to “better meet customer expectations, improve financial performance and drive profitable growth.” Floor space will be dedicated back to apparel and soft home furnishings such as linens.

The decision comes amid several lackluster quarters for appliance sales at J.C. Penney. Former J.C. Penney CEO Marvin Ellison moved quickly to try and turn the chain into his former employer Home Depot. Expensive dishwashers and refrigerators were trotted into hundreds of stores beginning in 2016 (along with flooring options).

This writer is still looking for traffic to these appliance departments some two-plus years later. The products such as $2,900 Samsung refrigerators with a touch screen on it were never going to work with the core economically sensitive consumer. Nice thought by Ellison given the demise of one-time appliance leader Sears, but that’s about it.

So it’s logical that Soltau would reverse Ellison’s work in appliances. But in doing so, J.C. Penney sent several clear signals to investors:

• J.C. Penney needs the cash, and fast. Appliances tend to be slow-sellers and take up good chunks of floor space. It’s akin to money being tossed down the toilet for a retailer like J.C. Penney. While J.C. Penney doesn’t own the appliance inventory (just the floor models) — it’s shipped directly from the manufacturer to the customer — the floor space is not being used productively. By using the space to hawk apparel, the thinking is that items will likely sell quicker and bring badly needed cash into J.C. Penney’s business.

• J.C. Penney is unable to venture into new categories that could bring in higher income shoppers. That leaves J.C. Penney in a position of selling clothes across multiple floors (to cash strapped consumers, no less) in the age of digital shopping. Not exactly a good spot to be in. J.C. Penney will probably have to begin leasing space out to other companies in an effort to collect rent and bring in new people. For example, Kohl’s recently teamed up with Weight Watchers to have the brand’s weight loss meetings in its stores.

• There are probably scores of under-performing J.C. Penney stores in the portfolio. The company signaled to investors several months ago that it may shutter a number of lagging stores. On. January 28, it said it would close three stores as part of a preliminary evaluation process.

J.C. Penney’s appliance retrench follows a seriously weak holiday season where same-store sales fell 5.4%.

Store closures ahead

Without question, J.C. Penney is in for a very ugly 2019. The company will have to run aggressive clearance sales to mark down its appliance inventory. That will pressure profit margins. Stores will be disrupted to re-merchandise the appliance departments with clothes. Employee morale could be hurt amid what appears to be a decent store closing campaign on the horizon.

And at some point, Soltau will have to explain to investors how she will stabilize J.C. Penney’s financial position.

All in all, we are witnessing the ongoing demise of an American icon. We have seen this script before, but it doesn’t make it any easier to watch.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @BrianSozzi

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