&lt;img src=&#039;http://assets.bizjournals.com/boston/news/Ullman_Myron*100.jpg?v=3&#039;&gt;Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Boston and similar protests are unlikely to produce significant changes in Americans&rsquo; shopping habits, the head of one of the country&rsquo;s biggest retailers said Friday.

At the same time, J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) Chairman and CEO Myron E. &ldquo;Mike&rdquo; Ullman III expressed sympathy for protesters who have taken to the streets in cities across the country.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not hard to understand why people would be frustrated,&rdquo; he said during an interview.

Many activists are reacting to what they perceive &mdash; rightly or wrongly &mdash; as a dearth of leadership in politics and in business and a lack of personal options, he said...&lt;div class=&quot;feedflare&quot;&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~ff/bizj_boston?a=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:yIl2AUoC8zA&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bizj_boston?d=yIl2AUoC8zA&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~ff/bizj_boston?a=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:V_sGLiPBpWU&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bizj_boston?i=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:V_sGLiPBpWU&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~ff/bizj_boston?a=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:F7zBnMyn0Lo&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bizj_boston?i=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:F7zBnMyn0Lo&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://feeds.bizjournals.com/~ff/bizj_boston?a=Ztve5gyzXtc:1S8Fqbuc_Ms:qj6IDK7rITs&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/bizj_boston?d=qj6IDK7rITs&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/img&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/bizj_boston/~4/Ztve5gyzXtc&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; width=&quot;1&quot;/&gt;