Stores like JC Penney and Sears, which once epitomized Middle America, are on life support as money flows out the rafters up to Nordstrom and down the gutters to Target and Kohl's.
The idea that JC Penney or Sears offered or offers good that in general were higher quality than Target or Kohl's is laughable. What's hurt JC Penney and Sears most is that they moved into large malls. Malls can be a hassle to get in and out of, especially at Christmas time. Shoppers who go there are likely to browse the whole mall, which usually include plenty of stores that offer items similar to, or more fashionable than those at JCP or Sears. By moving to the malls, JCP and Sears invited their customers to comparison shop. Both stores would have done better had they stayed out of the large malls altogether so that when people went to Sears or JCP, they went to Sears or JCP rather than the mall.
I think what differentiated Sears was not necessarily the quality of their clothes or anything, but the effort put into a class of goods that you can't really get at Target or Kohl's: namely, appliances. I feel like they were
the middle-class place to go for washers and driers and refrigerators, with a well-regarded house brand and good service.
Also, they did a brisk catalog business way back before those discount big-boxes were a thing. So their fall is, I'd agree, indicative of wider social trends.
JC Penney, eh, I'll agree they never had particularly great quality, if people are shopping at Target instead that's not really much if any of a downgrade. And they've also been plagued by management missteps recently, from what I've heard. I think the fall of mid-market retailers is definitely a thing (and the blame can be more-or-less equally divided between growing inequality and the "disruptive force" of buying things online), but JC Penney is a bad example of it.
