The J. C. Penney store location at Oxford Mall will be among five of the Mississippi department store’s the company announced Friday it will be closing. Nationwide, the company will close 138 stores over the next few months.

In a press release distributed Friday, Marvin R. Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of J. C. Penney said the decision to close stores was not an easy one.

“We understand that closing stores will impact the lives of many hard working associates, which is why we have decided to initiate a voluntary early retirement program for approximately 6,000 eligible associates. By coordinating the timing of these two events, we can expect to see a net increase in hiring as the number of full-time associates expected to take advantage of the early retirement incentive will far exceed the number of full-time positions affected by the store closures,” said Ellison.

Other stores in Mississippi scheduled to close include Columbus, Corinth, Greenville and Meridian.

J. C. Penney will continue to operate approximately 900 stores nationwide.