Do you think JCpenny's new pricing will work?

[carrie1626]

I'm having a little chuckle this morning because I too, have been programmed by the "coupon".
I will not even walk into KOHL's unless, I have a 30% off coupon. Needless to say, I don't shop there often, fine with me. I buy more stuff at Penny's anyway.
I've been in the JCPENNY store once since the price change and after spending an hour and really, really looking at alot of merchandise, I think it'll be OK.


One thing I've taken from all this is: no one likes change.

 

[North of Mouse]

It won't last (just IMO, of course). People are used to sales, coupons, what have you and that's what we expect If y'all remember, Sears tried the same approach several years ago - no more sales, just everyday low prices - yeah, right as if people would swallow that one when everyone else was putting out their Sunday fliers, etc. It hardly lasted anytime, in fact, so short a time that I can't even remember much about it . It doesn't matter about them though, because since they and K-Mart teamed up, I never go there anymore. I used to buy a lot of stuff from them - actually most of our appliances, but Samsung (last two major ones from Lowes) has our loyalty now. It's definitely just a marketing ploy because they are desperate - hope they are reading all these raving (not) reviews. We're not stupid to fall for this when it really isn't even true until they use it across the board and not for their cheap stuff to begin with.

 

[North of Mouse]

It won't last (just IMO, of course). People are used to sales, coupons, what have you and that's what we expect If y'all remember, Sears tried the same approach several years ago - no more sales, just everyday low prices - yeah, right as if people would swallow that one when everyone else was putting out their Sunday fliers, etc. It hardly lasted anytime, in fact, so short a time that I can't even remember much about it . It doesn't matter about them though, because since they and K-Mart teamed up, I never go there anymore. I used to buy a lot of stuff from them - actually most of our appliances, but Samsung (last two major ones from Lowes) has our loyalty now. It's definitely just a marketing ploy because they are desperate - hope they are reading all these raving (not) reviews. We're not stupid to fall for this when it really isn't even true until they use it across the board and not for their cheap stuff to begin with

 

[North of Mouse]

Sorry, double post, don't know what happened - operator error

 

[cornflake]

The thing is, people shopping in that category expect coupons. People shopping in other categories don't. It seems they're trying to move themselves out and away from Kohl's (and apparently Sears).

It's not a universal thing. There are plenty of stores that don't do the coupons/reward thing, they're just in different categories.

I don't know where JCP is trying to position themselves, obviously it's not high end but I don't think it's the discount bin either.

 

[North of Mouse]

The thing is, people shopping in that category expect coupons. People shopping in other categories don't. It seems they're trying to move themselves out and away from Kohl's (and apparently Sears).

It's not a universal thing. There are plenty of stores that don't do the coupons/reward thing, they're just in different categories.

I don't know where JCP is trying to position themselves, obviously it's not high end but I don't think it's the discount bin either.

I don't know either, but it won't really affect me much. They do have a large store here, and until the last couple years have seemed to do very well, but the last time I was in there the inventory was way less than usual and I didn't see anything that interested me. Used to shop for clothes there a lot, but now have turned more to Belks as they have great variety, with sales and good clearances. I just can't seem to find what I need at JCP's anymore, but I still think it's a marketing ploy here as it's very competitive in this area.

 

[catra121]

What I have heard is that they will have to go thru the store twice a month and manually change tickets on the items that they are marking down. That sounds like a huge waste of time, and if it is true I don't see how they would be saving any money in the long run.

The did markdowns every single week before...they just were not advertised. So going down to only twice a month will also save them money.

 

[North of Mouse]

The did markdowns every single week before...they just were not advertised. So going down to only twice a month will also save them money.

If they don't advertise their markdowns (ie. sales) how are we supposed to know about them? I don't go to some stores that often, but I WILL look at the sales flyers from the paper when I'm looking for something in particular to see if someone has it on sale. Their markdowns will not benefit me at all - notice in today's paper here they have a big list of supposed markdowns, but when I checked they didn't seem priced any different than comparable stores. For example - 6 qt. crockpot $30 everyday - whoopee, I can do lots better at Target or Walmart or------- I think these are just "get acquainted" to our new fair & square promo adds and not a regular Sun. add.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

I ran in to get a black blouse to go under my funeral suit (because I had a funeral to go to. . .) and came out with 4 blouses, 3 were on the month long sale, 1 was the clearance color. I believe I paid $9 for 2 blouses, $12 for one blouse, $5 for the clearance - all nice work blouses. I got a suit jacket for $25 (I will probably return this one.) I got two long sleeve tshirts, good quality, for $3 each and a long cardigan (cheap, but not as cheaply made as Target) for $5.

It wasn't bad at all. Prices wind up being about the same as what I normally pay, actually; I just don't have to play the coupon gam anymore.

I was a total hater and a doubter before I actually went into the store. Now I'm a believer. It's like shopping Target, but things aren't quite as cheaply made. I didn't look at Levis or the shoes though. From the comments here, will probably get DH's Levi's at Kohls. I like Target's shoes (cheap stuff I can throw away after one or two seasons) so I've never shopped Penney's shoes before anyway.

 

[jemmi]

I went there today to buy some valances for the kitchen I saw on their website. I got both of them for $34 because they were on sale for February. I was pleased with that price

 

[Colleen27]

I don't think it will last unless they plan to make a business of selling only/primarily their own labels. It seems to me that the low prices are pretty much limited to those, and anything name brand is selling at retail so without coupons or sales only the impulse and impatient buyer is going to pick up those items.

I've compared a few things that I have bought recently or buy fairly regularly, and what I've found is that my curtains which I've been buying a room at a time as I finish painting/decorating are slightly cheaper than I was getting by combining sales/coupons, the lamps I just bought before the change are slightly more expensive, and the jeans & tees I've recently bought for my kids are considerably more expensive.

I bought my son a few graphic tees for his birthday in Jan for $10ea on sale, so I paid $30 for 4 after applying a coupon; now those tees are $12 and $15, so they'd cost me up to twice as much as they did a month ago. No thanks.

 

[PaulaSue]

I'm not impressed at all. I was at the mall and only walked in because of the commericals. The store had half of the merchandise and the prices were not interesting/better, IMO.

 

[maxiesmom]

The did markdowns every single week before...they just were not advertised. So going down to only twice a month will also save them money.

They way I understand it is that they won't just put a new price on the current ticket. They will have to remove the current ticket a put a new one on. Way more time involved in something like that.

 

[momto2inKC]

I must've been misled by the commercial JCP was running. I thought we were no longer going to receive the annoying mailers? I opened my mailbox today to find a JCP mailer

 

[catra121]

They way I understand it is that they won't just put a new price on the current ticket. They will have to remove the current ticket a put a new one on. Way more time involved in something like that.

They layed of their ad set teams in all their stores...they would not have been able to do that if this were going to be MORE time consuming. I don't know for sure that they are going to invest the savings in technology or more efficient processes...but that would be my guess. My boyfriend used to be a store manager there and they are definitely WAY behind the rest of the retail world in both these categories. It makes sense that they might try to do something drastic to try to catch up...but it would be foolish to make those sorts of large long term investments without doing something short term to off set this.

Kohls is one company that invests a lot in technology even if it takes a while to reach all of their stores. Have you seen the electronic signing they are rolling out to all their stores (and I don't just mean in shoes...the WHOLE store)? This is obviously a major expense but the savings in payroll and workload in just a year or two will probably pay for it...not to mention hopefully make the signing more accurate.

And Target is known for their efficient processes...the more efficient you work the more money you save. But it takes time and money to develop processes that work in any given environment...you can't just take what works at one retailer and necessarily put it in another because there are different store structures and layouts. I would not be surprised if this is also something they are looking at investing into.

JCP needs to catch up to the competition and then pass them by to stay in the game. They have run things very old school for years and now they are constantly chasing the competition...never quite able to get there. They had a fantastic opportunity to compete and bypass Kohls with their free standing stores and they blew it. Beautiful stores but everything else was so old school that they just flopped big time. And that applies to not just their pricing and advertising but also to their hiring, scheduling, merchandising, replenishment, frieght, store structures, etc. They have a lot of broken things that they need to fix at JCP...I do not envy the guys at the top at all...having to decide which things to address first. Cutting the marketing/ad set budget was probably the easiest thing they could do in the short term to buy them time while they try to get a handle on everything else.

 

[emcclay]

They seem to have great sales on shorts, bermudas, and cute tops! I will be going there before I leave for WDW next month.

 

[Fire14]

Kohls is one company that invests a lot in technology even if it takes a while to reach all of their stores. Have you seen the electronic signing they are rolling out to all their stores (and I don't just mean in shoes...the WHOLE store)? This is obviously a major expense but the savings in payroll and workload in just a year or two will probably pay for it...not to mention hopefully make the signing more accurate.

Yes Kohl's is saving money with their electronic signing, less paper, Less Labor/time changing signs, More accurate pricing. Plus it will tell worker how much stock they have, What is hot seller, etc., how many they can put out on floor from back stock etc. Plus getting in some new/expanded lines.
I will say I personally have had better luck finding clothes to fit me at JCP but I also rarely used coupons or went shopping because I had couopn, I would consder myself a borderline inpulse shopper of I need clothes, price is fair, I buy.
I can say same thing about myself and Kohls but I'd say a coupon would make me more lkely to shop there vs no coupon. Kohls is also 20 min closer to me and not anywhere near traffic nightmare JCP and Mall is, plus there is a Kohls in that area also. I have 3 Kohl's in same area that I have 1 JCP.

 

[FINFAN]

No idea on whether this pricing will work for them long term, but I can comment on how I noticed right off the bat the polyester/nylon type material most of the ladies/women's tops were now made of There were maybe 5 different styles or *cuts*, but all the same material just differnt patterns or colors. It actually reminded me to DEB shop my DD used to go to when she was in high school. The tops were cut less generously in length as well...now maybe that is the trend or style for spring, but I basically thought the pricing was a little high for the feel of the item. I didn't look at housewares or jewelry, shoes etc., so no idea if quality seems different on those items. I will say it will be convenient for me to not work around sale prices but if the selection is blah and predictable that will affect me shopping there.