J. C. Penney Corporation Inc, the wholly owned operating subsidiary of J. C. Penney Company Inc, is one of America's largest department store, catalog, and e-commerce retailers, employing approximately 151,000 associates. As of April 29, 2006, J. C. Penney Corporation, Inc. operated 1,021 JCPenney department stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
JCPenney is the nation's largest catalog merchant of general merchandise, and is one of the largest apparel and home furnishings sites on the Internet. JCPenney refers to the Internet/catalog business as Direct.