The death of retail: JC Penny's geography problem

The retailer JC Penny is going through a round of store closings as part of its long standing financial difficulties.  You can find a list of the 33 stores closing here.  One thing you will notice is that all of these stores are in the suburbs.

And you can see on this quick google map search, JC Penny's stores are all in the suburbs.  There are no locations inside Chicago.

The JC Penny optical location in the Loop is defunct

In contrast Target has 2 locations in downtown, Macy's has a downtown location, and Sears has a store in the Loop on State Street.  Even Walmart, ever known for large parking lots, has multiple locations in Chicago.  With the growth of suburban poverty, that seems like a geographical problem.