Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BOUNTIFUL, Utah (AP) -- J.C. Penney will close its calls center in Bountiful, putting 375 people out of work.
The company on Friday blamed the closure on the 15-year-old facility on more orders being placed on the Internet instead of being called in to live operators, spokesman Tim Lyons said.
"We're not getting rid of the book catalog business, sales there have been stable," he said. "But the Internet side of it really has been growing dramatically."
The 375 workers who will lose their jobs will be offered outplacement assistance. Lyons said about 90 percent of them worked part-time at the center.
Another 100 employees will transfer to another J.C. Penney facility in the Salt Lake area.
J.C. Penney operates a national accounting center and five department stores in the Slat Lake City area, employing about 1,100 people.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
