Can someone explain what the heck Jcpenney is apologizing for?

[amg35]

I just saw the weirdest commercial!!

Basically Penney's is apologizing for something and asking people to come back.

Being honest, I never shop there and rarely pay attention to their commercials...I guess I should have!

What did I miss?? What did they do??

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

They fired their CEO and brought back the previous one. They are desperate to get shoppers back.

ETA: they got rid of sales and changed to a more boutique product offering and it bombed big time. Totally alienated almost their entire core shopping base.

 

[akhenaten]

They are apologizing for going to an everyday low price/ no coupons system. They just switched back to marking things up and offering sales ....lol

 

[DebbieB]

I just saw the weirdest commercial!!

Basically Penney's is apologizing for something and asking people to come back.

Being honest, I never shop there and rarely pay attention to their commercials...I guess I should have!

What did I miss?? What did they do??

Alienating their customers by taking away sales and coupons. Supposidly their "everyday prices" were lower but everything I usually bought was higher. They did have some cheaper stuff on clearance. It took me almost a year to use a $25 gift card I got for Christmas 2011.

 

[Plaid Sheep]

I hate the way the remodeled our JC Penney.
It's like they are trying to get a higher end customer (Nordstroms, Lord and Taylor) and failing miserably.
I could find things I liked before and now it just wide open spaces of sorta chi chi clothing.

Sad really.....

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I just saw the weirdest commercial!!

Basically Penney's is apologizing for something and asking people to come back.

Being honest, I never shop there and rarely pay attention to their commercials...I guess I should have!

What did I miss?? What did they do??

Actually, their most recent error that they are apologizing for was the poorly thought out shirt they were offering for sale:

A large number of parents, women's groups and educators took offense at such a sentiment.

 

[glammadiva]

I hate the way the remodeled our JC Penney.
It's like they are trying to get a higher end customer (Nordstroms, Lord and Taylor) and failing miserably.
I could find things I liked before and now it just wide open spaces of sorta chi chi clothing.

Sad really.....

I feel the same way!

 

[pantherlj]

I went yesterday to get a dress for my daughter. It took forever to find someone to ask where to check out - the checkout counters were gone from the women's clothing section. There were 2 last time I was there.
I finally found someone and she said I could go to shoes or jewelry or there were employees with handheld checkout machines. No one in shoes, jewelry lady was helping someone with picking out jewelry and it looked like it was going to be a while. Never did find anyone with a handheld checkout machine (where do they keep the bags anyway??). Finally went to the kids section and found a checkout counter. Very weird set up.

 

[FLCyndi]

What is chi chi clothing?

 

[OhMari]

They eliminated mannequins, posters and clothes in their stores. You could walk in and see from one end of the store to the other. I asked a clerk, who is sort of my neighbor and asked what happened. She said they wanted it more streamlined and if you could not find your size, you should ask and they will go in the store room and get it, or order it online for you.


She also said inventory is low, and most customers no longer shop on stores but online.

 

[Pikester]

I loved shopping at JCP! Notice I said "loved". I had no problem with the coupons and sales but I did understand what they were trying to do with streamlining the stores and with getting rid of the coupons by having every day prices.

The problem I had was with the styles of clothing they were now offering. I'm an almost 40yr old woman who does not want to wear skinny jeans, layers upon layers of see through clothing or extremely bright colors. They also did away with one of my favorite lines, St Johns Bay.

I was very lucky to win a $250 GC during their pin promo over the holidays but I had a very hard time spending it. I ended up buying a bunch of toys and then donating them to Toys for Tots. Got some new bathroom towels and a set of sheets too.

I have yet to take advantage of their newest coupons and discount codes due to the fact that there is nothing I want to wear from there. I did see that St Johns Bay was on it's way back in so my fingers are crossed that I might be able to finds something I like.

 

[RitaE]

St. Johns is coming back?

To make a long story short they hired a guy who had no clue what the JcPenney customer base was about. He made a bunch of changes, few of which were well received. He was then arrogant and condescending and managed to piss off most of the few customers that were left and he started laying off employees left and right to try and compensate for low sales.

Customers left in droves culminating in the result of what may have been the worst quarterly sales collapse in retail history.

http://www.businessinsider.com/jc-penney-worst-quarter-in-retail-history-2013-2

They fired him and brought back an ex-CEO to try and salvage the ruination of a 100 year old company.

 

[bettymae1121]

I loved the no coupon/sale thing. I loved the whole dollar pricing ($10 vs. $9.99).

The problem (for me) is that they decimated their selection, and what they did offer is never in stock.

They have the best fitting long sleeved blouses, perfect for work, and in 3 years (this problem pre-dated the change but I think it was made worse because of it) I have never been able to buy one because they never have the color I want in the size I need in stock either in stores or online. 3 years! I'm starting to think they never had the blouse to begin with in my size or in those colors.

I do now have a few $10 coupons, so maybe I'll take a look (again) and see if I can find something I want. Some of my earliest memories is of shopping at Penney's with my mother and I'd love to continue and shop there with my daughter once she's a bit older. Hope they turn it around.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

St. Johns is coming back?

To make a long story short they hired a guy who had no clue what the JcPenney customer base was about. He made a bunch of changes, few of which were well received. He was then arrogant and condescending and managed to piss off most of the few customers that were left and he started laying off employees left and right to try and compensate for low sales.

Customers left in droves culminating in the result of what may have been the worst quarterly sales collapse in retail history.

http://www.businessinsider.com/jc-penney-worst-quarter-in-retail-history-2013-2

They fired him and brought back an ex-CEO to try and salvage the ruination of a 100 year old company.

That's a perfect, succinct summary of what happened.

I'm hopefully we will get our old Penney's back. I LOVED my Jacque Penne (said with a breathy French accent). JCP, not so much.

 

[piglet too]

Actually, their most recent error that they are apologizing for was the poorly thought out shirt they were offering for sale:

A large number of parents, women's groups and educators took offense at such a sentiment.

I think that shirt was from 2 years ago.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I think that shirt was from 2 years ago.

Shows you where I am!

Yes, it's from Aug 2011. But yahoo was just posting it yesterday (again, apparently). Stupid me, I forget that Yahoo has to keep us interested and will dig up old stories as "news".

 

[Cantw8]

I hope they are apologizing for having a crappy clothing selection

 

[denisenh]

i think the apology commercial is lame, reminds me of the netfix mess. and it leaves me trying to figure out what i am not "seeing" because i liked the pre apology jcpenney changes.

 

[piglet too]

Shows you where I am!

Yes, it's from Aug 2011. But yahoo was just posting it yesterday (again, apparently). Stupid me, I forget that Yahoo has to keep us interested and will dig up old stories as "news".

Yahoo is pretty bad about that

 

[mommyrosa2]

I hope they are apologizing for having a crappy clothing selection