There’s a standalone J C Penney close to where I live, which is weird because it’s only a mile or so from the mall. I guess it may have started before the mall opened. For years I assumed it was an outlet store or warehouse but no, it’s just a standalone store. I went in to see if it was anything special but no, it’s just a regular store without anything I wanted to buy (unless I was looking for the same clothes that Target had but at a 30% markup, or appliances at a 30% markup vs Best Buy but which may or may not have slightly better service than BB [ETA: make that probaly WILL have better service than BB. How could you not?].)
Something that totally escaped the Appleista who tried to run it like a boutique.
Guess what: people won’t put up with snarky bullshit over mid-priced clothes and accessories like they will over top-dollar tech toys.
I was hoping that Ron Johnson would be able to revive the company. Target seems to have mastered selling mid-price merchandise but in more attractive, appealing stores than either Kmart or Walmart. So if Target can do it, so can JCP or Sears. (I was always amazed that Sears has not managed to improve the stores. They really need a good merchandiser at the head of the company.)
And the Dealbook blog on the New York Times website estimated that JCP’s real estate holdings are worth $5-10 billion but the company is worth only $3 billion. (Anyone remember Alexander’s department stores in the New York area? The store failed, but it had a lot of valuable real estate.)
I think you must be thinking of Sears. The biggest difference between the two chains is that Sears has tools and mid-to-large appliances, and Penney’s doesn’t.
At any rate, I’ve been a regular Penney’s customer over the years (pretty much every shirt I wear to the office came from Penney’s), but the remake chased me away. I’ll be back when they’ve undone it.
I don’t see them surviving-the way is now open for corporate vultures like Vornado, Icahn, or somebody else to buy it and sell off the valuable real estate. Unfortnately, but where were the highly paid CEOs and directors all those years ? Declines don’t happen overnight-JCP has been dying for years.
I have recently (last 12 months) started buying clothes online.
I love it.
I can get the exact size and colors delivered to my door.
I am slowly donating the clothes that I bought in all the stores mentioned above, that were purchased because they were “almost” my size, and color, and brand.
I find myself wearing only the stuff I bought online. Why oh why didn’t i do this thousands of dollars ago? They even hem and tailor at no charge, and email me when they have specials based on my profile. Non clothing items I get off Ebay or Amazon, such as a sit down ottoman, that hinges open, for the closet. Great to sit on while getting dressed, and for storage. Try getting the size and color & fabric you want at any store. Online, you design your own, and get it the next week. I recently bought sweaters, my size which is 4XL TALL, from either Ebay and/or KingSizeDirect, and they both have a massive color spectrum to select from. My friends are amazed at the colors and shades of colors I have - that you’ll never find in stores. And I want shirts and pants that have tons of pockets for cameras, cell phones, extra keys, digital voice recorder, and all my other goodies. Side pockets on pants are awesome when you drive hundreds of miles a week. KSD has awesome cardigan sweaters and vests - I get compliments on them all the time. No store has these in any size or color like KSD.
I think local stores will soon all be grocery stores.
Before my Grandma died, she and I used to go into Penny’s from time to time. She told me that when she was young, Penny’s was the place where poor people could buy things.
You’ve just described Edward Lampert’s strategy in a nutshell. Every thing I’ve read about him describes him as a real estate guy, not a retail guy. He’s clearly waiting for Sears/K-mart to die, so that he can sell off the property.
I was really hoping that this attempt by Penny’s to return to their roots would work. Evidently not.
My family has a copy of James Cash Penny’s biography. Back in the 1920’s, the J. C. Penny company occupied the same niche that Walmart does today. (With much the same results.) Activists and others hurled the same denunciations–often word for word–at J. C. Penny that are hurled at Walmart today. There was at least one state that tried to impose a special tax on stores with more than a certain number of locations; it was worded in such a way that only J. C. Penny would have been subject to the tax.
And, perhaps most interesting of all–when Sam Walton was young, he worked in a J. C. Penny store, and once met Mr. Penny. His experiences there made a lasting impression on him.
Mostly because of my wife, we buy almost everything online - even some groceries (bulk quality coffee, for example). She is hard to fit, needing talls, and is absolutely furious at JCP for dropping the outer size ranges from their offerings. She bought most of her basics from JCP for years and now has to search out specialty retailers for pants and tops.
If you don’t enjoy “shopping” as a hobby, buying online is so simple, convenient and cost-saving, not to mention offering more selection than even the biggest mall, that you never need set foot in a store again. And good effing riddance!
I always have seen JCP as two steps above WalMart, one step above Target, equal to Sears, and one step below Macys. As for survival, they had better figure out how to get people into the store and fast.
As for me, I have bought more stuff therein the last year than in ages. My store is a lot less crowded than it used to be, and the clothes are better displayed and arranged. There is more stuff I like than there has been for ages. Which shows that I would have made a good marketer. Take what I like, reverse it, and you can’t lose.
I go to JCP for my kid’s school uniforms because the have a good quality, good selection, and good price. So when my son needed some black shorts as part of his uniform, we went to JCO, even though this was March and not school uniform season. He is 13 and has grown hugely since last fall (and we live in Tucson, so shorts season starts in March), but I thought it would be fine, because he just needs black shorts, any brand, just ordinary black shorts. They had them scattered all over the store! This brand is over in this corner and that other brand is over on the other side, and each brand had maybe one pair in his size, so we spend probably an hour just looking for 4 pair of black shorts that fit him! And it might have been worth it if they were at least cheap, but they were mostly about $30 each, which is over $130 (with tax) for 4 pairs of shorts that I had to spend too much time looking for!
Bleh.
The only thing I buy from Penney’s is bathmat sets…they seem to be the only retailer to stock a wide variety of sets that feature elongated toilet seat covers. They only have them online now though. I haven’t shopped for clothes there since I was in high school, when the Arizona-labeled stuff was so popular.
The appearance of the Sears at the local mall (Crabtree) is jarring…other than its very worn appearance, it looks like it was pulled right out of the '90s. It also tends to be empty.
Try getting the fabric you want online.
I can pick a shirt up off the table in a store, and know immediately whether I like the fabric. But I can’t do that online.
I might be able to tell from the specs if it’s got the sort of cotton/poly blend that I’m used to. But how light or heavy, thin or thick, is it? There doesn’t seem to be any metric for that, or if there is, it’s not on the labels of the shirts or slacks I buy, AFAICT. But I can tell immediately when I physically pick it up.
“Erase every mark of good taste” is hardly new. 
Marketing clothes is a little more complicated than that. Most people who want to pay modest prices for clothes prefer self-serve, with all colors, styles and sizes out for selection - which means a Target-like layout, crowded and with full racks. You can’t take JCP-level clothes to a Saks-level presentation, where one $1500 cardigan hangs on a display in the center of a 200 square foot space, with perhaps a rack of three other sizes discreetly tucked in a corner. JCP, like Monkey Wards long ago in its dying gasp, tried to boutique-ify the whole store, and it’s a guaranteed fail at that price/market level.
Works great for a Saks shopper who is going to have a little sales gal trot along with them to fetch alternatives. Works great for the iPad in seven new colors. Not so hot for a $20 skirt or men’s stretch-waistband slacks.
Maybe you should go to a dry goods store. 
Lands End for one will send you fabric swatches so that you can check the fabric yourself.
There’s some truth to that, but in general, if you’re buying quality clothes, you can make better guesses about fabric etc. or learn quickly which ones suit you. You may return a shirt or two before finding out which line suits you, but they tend not to change over time as much as they do at Target, JCP etc.
I have about six LL Bean flannel shirts, bought one at a time over two years, and you can’t tell them apart in the dark. My wife has basics she’s bought over decades, and ditto.
If you’re a clotheshorsey type who frequently buys variations, that’s different. But all online retailers have generous return policies, too, so buy and try is a valid option.
I am a creature of habit. Once I find a fabric, size, brand that i like online, I lock in on it, and then order various colors. Sweaters, vests, pants, shirts…they are all from just a handful of brands with known fabrics. Go with what works, then load up on colors.
There was a definite absence of good taste in the old JCP, at least in this store.
I guess I wasn’t clear. The old JCP had racks of shirts,. say, crowded together with lots of them thrown on tables. The underwear especially seemed to be giving WalMart a run for most disgusting presentation. I can’t say for sure if the quality of the new JCP is better than the old since I was never actually tempted to look at shirts, say, closely enough to tell before. The new one definitely is not a boutique, but does have stuff displayed in a way that is far more appealing to me.
I’m old enough to remember Money Wards, and its last gasps, and this was done much better.
But I hate to shop for clothes, and a place that appeals to me is not likely to be that successful. And I don’t know what he was thinking with the Martha Stewart deal. So I’m not defending the new stores - just saying it worked for me. Which clearly is the kiss of death.
Macy’s?
And I maybe go into Penney’s once a year if I remember it exists way off in the back corner of the mall its in. Honestly, they might try to be trendy, but they fail miserably. When I imagine your average frumpy Iowa housewife, I imagine her dressed to the nines in clothes from Penney’s, thinking to herself how trendy she is.
Penney’s is definitely not high end. Saks is high end. Nordstrom is high end. Macy’s is mid level. Penney’s and Sears are sisters (although Sears at least has the Kardashian Kollection, which - while stupidly named- is actually pretty nice).
Yeah, I literally had no idea they sold appliances and tools. I know they sell drapes and stuff upstairs, but I don’t remember tools.
That said, I REALLY love how Penney’s stuck it to One Million Moms. If they can fix their product, I’d be more than happy to shop there.
How big? I really need something like 8" square before I can really get a sense of the weight and feel.
And the problem also is, that’s only one retailer. I’m not going to collect swatches from several different retailers. I’d lose them, mix them up, etc.
What they really need is some weight/thickness metric that could go on the label, just like waist and inseam for slacks, and neck and sleeve length for shirts, and fabric/blend for both. Then I could figure out what numbers corresponded with my preferred summer and winter weight shirts, for instance.
I’m really lousy at returning things; I’ve pretty much acknowledged to myself that I’m only ordering stuff online if I’m either completely confident in what I’m getting, or I’m willing to just give it away if I’m not happy with it.
Really, I think I’m better off shopping for clothes in stores. I can do shoes online, but that’s really it. Hell, I couldn’t even manage to order a belt online successfully.