By Allison Smith
Herald Intern
Employees of the JCPenney at Seminole Towne Center came together to commemorate the store’s final months after more than 30 years in the mall.
The JCPenney opened in the Seminole Towne Center in 1995. This location is scheduled to close May 24, ending 31 years of the store that connected generations of workers. The women who worked there forged friendships that continue thriving today.
“We were a family store. Everybody was a member of the family. And that's what was really beautiful about the JCPenney store,” Jane Briel said.
Briel first worked at JCPenney in 1962 after graduating from FSU. She moved to Maryland for several years with her husband before returning to central Florida, and in 1983 she began working at JCPenney again.
“It was strictly for a little extra money at Christmas,” Briel said. “Then it was ‘Can you just stay for Valentine's Day?’ and ‘Can you just stay for Easter?’ so, I ended up working full time again.”
Briel said Joe Lasowski is the current store manager, and that she can see how much he loves his job. “Everyone loves Joe,” Briel said. “He’s a people person.”
“I’ve got a really good team,” Lasowski said. “I couldn't ask for any better than that.”
Briel said that her coworkers were more than coworkers to each other, each one treated each other like family.
Nancy Beal was the daughter of one of the original store openers of this JCPenney’s, Joan Slivinski, and to represent her mother at the store closing she brought her picture.
“She worked here until she was 80 years old,” Beal said. “She’s the one who held the JCPenney Christmas parties, every year for each year she’s been here, she held them at her house.”
“We all loved one another. We worked with each other. We supported each other, no matter who you were, what age you were, where you came from, it did not matter. We were there as your family,” Briel said. “We don’t find that today.”
Over the years that Briel has worked at JCPenney’s, she had two cars stolen from the store's parking lot.
The first time her car was stolen, she said her coworkers found it a few days later in Haynes city with the entire interior destroyed. The second time there was still merchandise in the car.
“The store got together, collected money, and helped me get a rental car until I could get my car fixed,” Briel said. “The second time they found it in Sanford. The people tried to bring the merchandise back to the store and say it was a gift.”
In 2004 many hurricanes struck Florida, and Briel had a tree in her yard come down. “We had a gigantic oak tree in our front yard,” Briel said. “It was a tornado that happened to come through and tore my tree right down the middle.”
Briel said that when she told her coworkers about the damage, her manager reported it to the corporate office for her.
Corporate sent Briel a letter sympathizing for her losses and writing her a check for $100, funds that were raised by JCPenney’s sales associates across the country.
“This is what the store did. We were not just a store to service people,” Briel said. “We were family.”
Since the malls closing the store hadn’t felt the same, Briel said. “Unfortunately, our mall has just fallen apart,” Briel said. “It’s like going back to your home, and there’s nothing there but a big mansion.”
While the store may be closing, Briel and her coworkers still remain connected. "We actually meet every second Thursday of the month to get together for lunch,” Briel said. “Sometimes there’s 12 of us, sometimes there’s only six of us, and we still get together.”
Briel said that even today, the women of the JCPenney store continue to treasure the connections and friendships they’ve built all those years ago.
“I think that's what we have to remember,” Briel said. “There’s a good that's going to come out, because of the friendships we made. That’s what it’s all about.”
