2.1 Introduction of the industry The retail industry includes all business activities, dealing with the distribution of goods and services for personal and household use. The industry can be divided into two major categories- department stores that deal with the distribution of general merchandize, and specialty stores, which are narrowly focused on a specific category, ranging from apparel to home furnishing, and sport goods. Discount stores, which offer goods at lower than the average prices, may be consider as a third category of the industry. However, in this report we will focus on the department store industry, to which our company- JC Penney belongs. 2.2 History; challenges and opportunities the industry faces Originally, department