A recent article in The Wall Street Journal stated that “J.C. Penney reported quarterly results late Thursday and its shares soared 16% Friday.”  I’m delighted that J.C. Penney is rebounding from its brief and ill-advised venture into fashion boutique world.  Much of its current success appears to be a function of the company returning to its traditional way of doing business.

J.C. Penney has a proud history of providing great value to its customers.  This is especially true in regard to its private label apparel lines.  The focus here is on durability and the “the best bang for the buck.”  I also cited a Wall Street Journal article in The Millionaire Next Door:

J.C. Penney . . . subjects garments to tough tests for color matching, fabric shrinkage, and pilling . . . when it comes to quality control Penney’s is more demanding than any other department store.

According to my own data, J.C. Penney is the number one source for apparel among an interesting segment of the millionaire population, those who live in homes valued at between $125,000 to $399,000.  Note that the median market value of their homes is $292,204 and for their respective neighborhood, just over  $295,000.

Where you shop and how much you spend is greatly influenced by the market value of your home and that of your neighbors.  As I stated in Stop Acting Rich,

Most of the self made millionaires I have studied have one thing in common: they were able to build wealth precisely because they never lived in a home . . . where their domestic overhead made it difficult for them to build wealth.  . . . the more affluent the neighborhood the more its residents spend . . . from cars to haircuts, and from wine to watches. 

Earlier I reported that:

Among the 944 millionaires profiled in Stop Acting Rich those who became millionaires with the smallest number of income dollars were more than 3 times as likely than those big income producers to say that their most recently purchased suit was a J.C. Penney private label one.