This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2005, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A decline in catalog orders made by telephone has led to the closure of a J.C. Penney call center in Bountiful. As a result, 375 employees are losing their jobs, the company announced Friday.
The decision to close the 15-year-old center stems from the growing popularity of online shopping, J.C. Penney 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 has really been growing dramatically."
About 100 employees from the Bountiful center will transfer to another J.C. Penney facility in the Salt Lake area, the company said. The 375 employees who will lose their jobs - 90 percent of whom work part time - will be offered outplacement assistance, Lyons said.
J.C. Penney operates a national accounting center and five department stores in the Salt Lake City area that employ about 1,100 people.
During Utah's economic boom in the 1990s, telephone call centers of various sizes and types proliferated along the Wasatch Front.
But in recent years, a poor economy combined with a rise in sales made via the Internet has led to a downturn in that industry and, subsequently, layoffs.