A J.C. Penney clerk for 41 years, Utahn witnessed retail changes

West Valley City • As of last week, this light-speed world still held a place for a J.C. Penney store clerk with 41 years in the same job. Merle Hansen, 80, has served the department store’s customers at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City since 1971. She knows a great deal about home decor products. If you need help buying blinds or curtains in particular, you’ll want to talk to her. “I try to keep up,” Hansen said humbly, later confiding that she “could probably name every drape in my depar...