We were so familiar with the fabric department at Penney's that once my sister who was probably only 3 or 4 years old had walked up to the shopping strip where the Penney's was located in our city neighborhood. The clerks recognized her and called my mother.
In addition to Penney's, Famous Barr and Stix Baer and Fuller also had fabric departments that I shopped in when I was 19-20 years old. Now gone, it is Macy's and Dillards respectively.