Ex-Apple Exec Dumped By JC Penney

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After less than a year and a half, JC Penney has ousted its new CEO and hired back his predecessor. Ouch.

When Ron Johnson took over as CEO of JCPenney a little more than a year ago, he promised sweeping changes. A new image, an end to sales, everyday low prices, iPad-toting staffers, Genius Bar-like customer service. He tried all that, but the retailer still couldn’t shake its reputation as the place your mom dragged you to buy clothes you hated in 1984, and now Ron Johnson, he’s gone.
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JCPenney's new-ish logo is awful. The '71-'06 logo is still my fav.
 
This store is still relevant anymore? I thought they were like Kmart and you could only find one once in a blue moon.
 
The no discount idea really worked out well for JCPenny, i am sure noone will mess them when they disappear all together.
 
TechLarry said:
4 posts in, and it's not Apple's fault yet :)
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Well in an indirect sort of way you could say it is since this guy basically had no ideas outside of pretend it's Apple. "Genius bar like customer service" because everyone wants to stand there for an hour before getting help. iPad toting employees... works well at Sears... NOT...
 
They didn't give their 'everyday low prices' enough time.

They used to run sales that only stupid people will fall for. One week it was buy one get one free, the next it was buy one 50% off, get the next one 50% off. You always paid the same price no matter how they did they math. I started shopping there again after they did away with the gerrymandering but it seems like they want to go back to that BS.

Now, in an attempt to look cool and hip, they have clerks using iPhones to check you out.
 
This story really speaks to me...

the retailer still couldn’t shake its reputation as the place your mom dragged you to buy clothes you hated in 1984
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especially that part, I was 4 in 84 and yes my mom dragged me there many a time...
 
Ultima99 said:
This story really speaks to me...



especially that part, I was 4 in 84 and yes my mom dragged me there many a time...
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For me it was Sears. She always bought me "work clothes" because they would last longer. Sheez...
 
Who cares? The only reason this story is sort of relevant is that the man used to work at Apple. This sort of thing happens all the time. Some dude comes in hoping to change a retailer, and it may or may not work out. Didn't work out, move along... Next.
 
Ultima99 said:
This story really speaks to me...



especially that part, I was 4 in 84 and yes my mom dragged me there many a time...
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JC Penny has no real presence in Canada, so I was dragged to Sears and Zellers a lot for clothes.
 
must be a sweet gig for the FORMER guy who got re-hired.

If someone kicks you out -- then asks you to come back, that's instant big raise right there. Sure JC Penny might be on it's death bed, but bank while you still can.

Just looked it up, the apple guy made a cool 1 million dollars for running the company further into the ground. The guy they re-hired, his compensation packages were historically worth around 50 million a year.

Must be nice.
 
About time and good riddance(no i do not hate apple)

He's one of the reasons our store is closing down after 40-50 yrs:(
 
I really liked the no discount move. If I have to read a freaking paragraph just to figure out what I can and can't use my coupon on and what times I can, I don't bother with the coupon and by extension, shop elsewhere just out of spite. Anyways, after it got rolled out I noticed the quality of half their stuff went down town. I use to get dress shirts there that were really nice. Same brands/styles now are as thin as the tissue paper used to package them.
 
I think the apple guy had the right idea.....

well maybe the no sales and just everyday low prices.
They tried to modernize their merchandize also.

Unfortunately, people like my mother are the customer base.....my mom is 88......
and they are accustom to things being like they always have.....change doesn't sit well in that age group.

So...........back to the fucked up 50% off the sale price..........
 
Maybe they didn't do a very good job advertising? I didn't know any change was taking place. Maybe they did advertise, but I don't watch enough TV to see any of the ads. whatever.
 
bigdogchris said:
They didn't give their 'everyday low prices' enough time.

They used to run sales that only stupid people will fall for. One week it was buy one get one free, the next it was buy one 50% off, get the next one 50% off. You always paid the same price no matter how they did they math. I started shopping there again after they did away with the gerrymandering but it seems like they want to go back to that BS.

Now, in an attempt to look cool and hip, they have clerks using iPhones to check you out.
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It was more like everyday high prices.

The few times I shopped at JC Penney years ago was when they had a good deal on something I needed.
After the changed I never found anything I'd buy, as they went more "trendy" and expensive just like Apple :)
 
ballistic90 said:
Maybe they didn't do a very good job advertising?
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Thier advertising the last couple years was a joke.
Expensive multipage ads, printed on expensive thick paper, without prices.
The ads seem to be mostly aimed at Metrosexuals/Hollywood types and they wonder why middle America stopped shopping there?
 
they had those crappy commercials with the girl (she was not attractive) picking on her brother or with Ellen. not a way to appeal to middle America. the everyday low price and no more fake sales was good... but advertising sucked big time cause they couldnt have sales anymore... too bad, they still needed items marked down to get door traffic.
 
I will say they have drastically improved the clothes they carry, but the advertising was awful and I don't think they could shake the old JCP image. It probably would have worked better if they changed the name , when they changed the store.
 
In the last two years, many of the old brands that they used to carry and that we still bought and expected to be there were discontinued. Yes, they brought in new "trendy" brands -- which we will never buy any of.

Also, they used to have sales, and women (i.e. my wife) like sales. If there isn't a sale going on, she doesn't even GO there. So, no sales, no customers. Of course, they are probably pretty happy my wife HASN'T been shopping there, she is as good at clothes shopping as I am at computer equipment shopping (i.e. only buy whats on special, preferably buy whats on clearance, and then stack a coupon on top of the discount, and, if possible order through FatWallet CashBack online for instore pickup, using a Discover to get another 2% back....basically she almost never buys anything at a store unless the store is losing money on it).

My mother on the other hand, will almost never let a coupon "go to waste", and will often buy stuff she doesn't really need just so she can use the coupon -- and invariably comes out of the store with 2-3 other items that the coupon didn't apply to. THIS is where the stores make money.

"Everyday Low Prices" may work when you are buying groceries, paper towels, and toilet paper at Walmart -- but for fashions and clothes? Forget it.
 
Basically, they didn't NEED to change their image that much -- they may not have been growing, but they weren't going bankrupt either (at least around here). Two years ago, the stores here had tons of shoppers, especially when a sale was going on.

When they were giving out the silly Candy Bars with a random 10-30% off coupon in it a couple of times a year, they were still so packed it was a pain to find a checkout clerk. That was about the last time I actually shopped there for the brand of shirt I like (which they promptly discontinued right after they put their new policies in place).

Since then, for the last year, JCPenney's around here (there are 4) have become virtual ghost towns. Now, they have been sending out sales coupons and $10 off $20 and 20% discounts left and right for the last couple of months -- and both my wife and my mother have been shopping there at least once a week ever since (after having not even been IN THE STORE in almost a year).
 
ND40oz said:
The ones with the reinforced knees so you wouldn't wear them out as quickly, man that sucked.
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"ToughSkins" or "TuffSkins", I forget how it they spelled it. Oh yeah, I rocked those as a kid.

I think the "No Sales" thing was a big mistake. Their average customer went there specifically for the sales, at least it got them through the door. It doesn't matter that they were paying the same price in the end on their "sale" items. Mark items up 50% then put it on sale for 50% off and someone will buy it and brag to their friends what a great deal they got.
 
He tried to sell clothes to the Apple buying crowd.

If he woulda gave away a free bottle of patchouli oil with every
pants / dress purchase, he woulda had a hit on his hands.

Smelly hippies :)
 
And just so we're clear.

One of the age old lessons of sales is you don't sell the steak.

You sell the sizzle. You gotta make that buying decision exciting for the
person. They can spend money anywhere. Why should they spend it
with you?

Since their prices were "everyday low" (like Walmart says, but again, different
segment) you didn't have to rush there to get a deal. The perception is more
important than the price. If someone feels like they are getting a better deal off
you today than tomorrow, they will buy.

This guy ruined that @ JCP, which was clearly what they did right to begin with. Its
the reason Kohl's adopted the same concept and then crushed JCP in the process
of doing it.

Kohls card = 10-30% off, they get to make it back on the interest and balance carrying
and they get people consistently in the door for those things. Always, period.

It works and Ron Johnson failed miserably at it
 
So a company switches it's marketing and abandons it's existing customer base to try and stretch itself to a new customer base that couldn't give 2 shits about them, then changes their idiotic pricing model(crazy markup plus crazy discount so they can have "SALESTRAVAGANZA!!!!") to something their customer base doesn't understand(it didn't take a rocket scientist to notice when everyone in line had a coupon in their hands, that the sales and coupons were the primary draw for customers), and then their revenue goes down the toilet? Shocking.

And yes... JCP is the store that I got dragged to between '84-'90 that I absolutely hated going to yet my Mom just had to go there because of coupons and crap... Haven't set foot into a JCP as an adult. I've seen their ads, sales, coupons, tv commercials, and nothing has ever convinced me to go there for anything. Sure, we also went to Sears, Marshalls, and plenty of other stores back then but JCP was the one we spent 80% of our shopping time in. If JCP wants to have "growth" they need to fix the image that a generation of people have stuck in their heads about the place.
 
I caught their mistake right away when they changed up and introduced all of those sales. What they did was mark everything up drastically so they COULD afford all of those huge sales - what you're doing is you're still paying around regular price at the end of the day.

The only way you can get under "regular price" is by using store credit cards - at least for Macy's and Carson's. Using their cards, you get another 20% off, but that's mostly offset by the cards' interest rates if you don't pay it all off at once.
 
If you shop at any of these stores you are getting ripped off anyway. I can buy A&F shirts directly from the factory in Cambodia for less than $5, think about it, they sell the same shit for $80 by the time it gets there, even at $10 it would be a 100% profit margin.

The whole idea behind JCP and their new business is nice in theory but in practice it completely misses everything. 1 people who give a rip about value don't shop at the malls. 2 the clothing market unlike apples computer market is already saturated with companies running every type of business model that exists. Apple came into a market that did not have a mass market company whom could market to upper class wanna bes. JCP has no such luxury want to move down, walmarts already there, want to move up, macys et al are already there. You had something working, you had a middle class niche carved out you should have focused on that. Instead you might have just blown it and moved those customers over to sears or something.

Second look at your very product moron, its clothes do people need to buy clothes all the time, no, so why do they? Because they want something updated, new exciting, you tried to turn clothes into gasoline, they already have people selling that stuff its called tractor supply, and middle class cracker woman don't go to tractor supply.

Anyhow this will be a good lesson to all the other companies who think they can recreate the apple magic, you cant because it only works in new expanding markets not old ones. And if you want to try to break into an old market you need to create a new brand not try to reforge an existing one. JCP has a reputation its sticks if you really want to change pretend someone else bought you and rename all your stores.
 
I can totally relate with this...the burnt umber corduroys I was forced to wear to school when I was 17 will haunt me for the rest of my life...

Ultima99 said:
This story really speaks to me...

especially that part, I was 4 in 84 and yes my mom dragged me there many a time...
Click to expand...
 
A nice chunk of folks got laid off in order to support this guy's action plan, so screw him and the golden parachute he floated out on.
 
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