“In the past year, the company lost nearly a billion dollars and saw its revenue tumble nearly $4.3 billion to $12.98 billion. Customer traffic dropped 13 percent from the year before.”
So they dumped the current CEO and replaced him with the old one–who wasn’t successful either.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-04-09/penney-ceos-challenge-is-it-even-fixable
Will J.C. Penney survive or will it go bankrupt?
My prediction is that they will survive, but only barely, and will have to make a lot of embarrassing changes. They won’t become another K-Mart, but they will lose some of their high-end cachet and become a little more “working class” in tone.
Hasn’t Sears been going bankrupt for like 30 years? How are they still around? If they can still have stores open, JC Penney will be fine.
I wasn’t aware that J.C. Penney had any high-end cachet to lose.
Yeah, I shop at J.C. Penney all the time, and I’ve never been under the impression it was considered “high-end”. It’s a mid-market department store.
Or rather, I used to shop at J.C. Penney all the time. I live in a small town without many choices, but I’ve started migrating over to the local Belk. (That and Wal-Mart being my only other options.) Within the past year or two JCP has changed or dropped altogether some of the basic things like fitted t-shirts, sweaters, and jackets that I used to buy there regularly. Their women’s t-shirts now are really thin and flimsy, the particular style of sweater I liked seems to have vanished, and last time I was there I couldn’t find ONE blazer in black! They had various shades of pink, blue, and even green, but not black. (I see there are a couple available on their website now, but they weren’t available in my local store a few months ago.) I wound up getting one at a Macy’s in another town.
Overall it seems to me like they’re trying to appeal to a younger, trendier audience, which in and of itself I can understand as a business strategy, but killing off basic wardrobe staples like black blazers and reasonably sturdy t-shirts has driven this customer away. I mean, I’m sure there are women who’d love this hot pink blazer currently available at J.C. Penney, but it would be totally inappropriate for most situations where I’d bother to wear a blazer in the first place. So while I was a loyal JCP customer for many years, I’m now inclined to think that they deserve to die.
Our local JCP and JCP Outlet closed its doors last year which is too bad 
Heh! To me, they’re high end! They don’t have nearly anything at all that I’d buy! (I go there for my eyeglasses.) Here in San Diego, they’re an anchor store at “Fashion Valley,” the high-end shopping center.
(Locally called “fascist valley,” but never mind…)
Same here. I walked into their store last spring looking for some summer shirts. I could find NOTHING that wasn’t made of the cheapest, thinnest polyester possible. It was all cheap and nasty. And then they stopped having any depth of selection, and I realized that all the basics I used to buy there I could get at Kohl’s (for clothes) and Bed Bath and Beyond (for kitchen and home goods). And if I watched the sales at Eddie Bauer carefully I could get fairly good quality stuff for the same price I used to pay at JCP. I haven’t bought anything at Penney’s in a year, and I don’t miss it much.
For me, there was a time when J.C.Penney was the only option, other than Wal-Mart in the smallish town where I lived. I’m in a larger place, now, with far more places to shop.
Although I can say I’ve been to J.C.Penney a few times in the past year, the bulk of my clothes shopping is done at Belk, T.J.Maxx, Marshalls, and Steinmart. Mainly because the last time I looked at clothes in J.C.Penney, it seemed the ideal place for my grandmother or a trashy teeny-bopper to shop, with not much in between…unless you needed some fuzzy house slippers or a hideously gigantic handbag with assorted blingery attached.
If we’re going to hate on department stores, I don’t understand why any of them exist anymore. There seem to be two kinds: the cheap-ass polyester midmarket kind, and the snotty designer no real person could afford that kind. I’ve never in my life found something I wanted to buy and wear in a department store.
I gotta agree with this. They are all either Sears or Neiman Marcus to me.
I agree. Ours was flooded in Hurricane Irene and was the last store to reopen, and in the meantime they got the new CEO and the idea for a bunch of little stores in the store. I hated it – I like to see the options all laid out not chopped up and separated. And even before the reopening they had little in the way of basics like they used to have. Our other options are Kohl’s and TJMaxx, and expensive boutiques for average sizes.
I could see J.C.Penney’s being reduced to mostly the tools, large appliances, and some things like vacuum cleaners. Those are the items where I still find them to be competitive and to have decent quality.
I could survive without the sales and having just a flat, “low” price. (Though sales are what I live for.) But not having all your options right there to look through? No thanks. I can’t easily walk across the store to see what another brand has to offer and even if I could, I’ve already forgotten aspects of what I looked at first. We tried. It wasn’t worth it.
Thirty-five years ago, Penney’s was my go-to store for decent clothing. I could find classic styles in nice colors and good quality for reasonable prices. Somewhere along the line, they started to change - less traditional clothing and more trendy, at lower quality. I think the last thing I bought at a Penney’s was a purse, and despite paying more than I wanted to, I ended up with a crappy product which was replaced in less than a year by a bag I found at WalMart, of all places. I’m still using the WalMart bag.
I tried Penney’s when I was looking to replace the bedspread and curtains in the master bedroom, but all I saw was ugly and/or poor quality. I don’t see myself shopping there again any time soon.
I hate shopping for clothes. I went to a local JCP six or so years ago to buy pants. I found two pair that fit and grabbed three of each and took my 6 pants (12 pant) to the cashier. She wanted me to take advantage of a big discount (40%?) by applying for and using a JCP charge.
Not interested. She argued. Not interested. She actually got flustered that I could walk away from HUGE SAVINGS. Just lemme pay for my damn pants.
After eventually paying, I drive home to find that she was so into her sales spiel that she forgot to remove the theft thing from one item. I had to return to deal with that, but swore a blood oath to never return.
That JCP closed a year or so later.
We have one JCP in my general area. It’s a very sad-looking, time-has-forgotten type of place.
A few months ago my husband was looking for a decent winter jacket. He’s in that awkward size range between regular and big/tall men, and Kohl’s, unfortunately didn’t have the jacket he wanted in his size. JCP came to both of us on a whim.
I don’t think we’ve ever talked so much with a salesperson, and it wasn’t any kind pf pressure salestalk either: The salesperson was the only one covering men’s as well as another area, probably hadn’t had a customer all day, so you tell he was just dying to talk.
I think we were there for more than an hour talking about everything under the sun. And no, my husband didn’t find a jacket there. We haven’t returned since.
I like to wear sweater vests, and I usually have to troll the department stores in the spring to find them at decent prices. They’re the kind of product that’s 60 bucks “regularly” and 20 bucks on sale, no matter the brand.
Otherwise, I can’t remember the last thing I bought from one. Probably a tie or something.
The problem is when I think of those, I think of Sears. Think how Craftsman and Kenmore are still recognizable.
I’m 40. My father does all his clothes shopping at J.C. Penny. I haven’t been in a store in 20 years. I do most of my shopping at Wal-Mart or Amazon, but when I do want a physical store that’s a bit nicer Kohl’s is a lot less hassle. Its seems that when you have low, medium, and high options, it’s always the middle that struggles.
I haven’t been to a JC Penney in years but I had no idea that they even sold tools.