Irregardless of what they do or do not promote, they stopped carrying the few things, their own brand, that I went there to purchase. And when I went to their site to complain that they no longer carried the items and in effect would lose my business, one of their customer care “specialists” responded that I was wrong. It was just like talking to a liberal, truth is unknown.
I think you're on to something. I know a lot of people choose to believe that the gay marketing is what destroyed Penney's. This may or may not be the case. I don't know. Fact is, there's a lot of other companies out there marketing to gays that are doing just fine.
One thing I do know is that Penney's today barely resembles the Penney's I used to shop at a few years ago. At one time I really liked their St. John's Bluff brand of casual wear. They were durable, fit well and their t-shirts, polos and oxfords came in about 100 different colors. They always had good prices on jeans and dockers as well. My closet was full of Penney's clothing. And then all of the sudden they just stopped carrying this stuff. And that's pretty much when I stopped shopping at Penney's.