JCPenney to resume appliance sales

[SamSpade]

I saw a TV commercial for JCPenney announcing the fact that they were starting to sell major appliances, but the ad made it clear that they would be available online only (i.e., at jcpenney.com) and not in stores. I think that's going to be interesting -- how many people buy major appliances without seeing them? (Of course they can always go look at them at another store, but with price-matching these days, Penney's might lose a lot of sales.)

http://www.jcpenney.com/for-the-home/ap ... R-_-BROWSE

This is very confusing now. Plain as day it says "NEW AND ONLINE ONLY" yet off to the side where it says "find a store" it gives a list of the stores that have added the appliance departments. Maybe they are offering online sales to areas where they do not have appliance departments yet? I just hope they aren't resorting to the way Sears/Kmart does things...trying new concepts then abandoning them after only rolling them out in a small number of stores.

It would make sense that they would have them available online and maybe at least starting with only some stores to see how it works out.

For one thought, there are probably still a few of those small JC Penney stores out there that wouldn't have the space for something like appliances?
Also, if they are available online they could likely coordinate deliveries to the stores that don't carry them for those who want them in those locations?

While JCPenney has about 1100 stores nationwide, they seem to consistently be adding things like larger home departments, Sephora and this new appliance adventure into their largest/more urban 500 or so stores (assuming they test well). I will say they added more small/mid-market Sephoras and despite the loss of potential floor space for other items, it's proving to be a success.

Last check I knew of, Macy's has about 750 stores nationwide. While people think that JCP should be sized similarly to Macy's, the rumor is also that they have good return out of their "hometown sized" former Golden Rule or small off-mall stores since they own a majority of the real estate, it's long since been paid off, etc. But, most of these will have women's, men's, children's clothing and footwear, women's accessories and jewelry, a modest home department and some with a salon and "online" pickup desk. I believe that the salons getting the "InStyle" makeover are only in the larger stores.
JCPenney Partners with InStyle

[Super S]

Was driving by Clackamas Town Center today and noticed a banner on the JCPenney store announcing they now sell major appliances. So out of curiosity, and because I had some time to kill, I stopped in. The location in the store is not real prominent, upstairs in the far corner of the home section. The prices seem to be okay. However I did notice a few issues.

First, only a handful of refrigerators were plugged in, and these were the higher end models only. Many of the lower priced ones which were along the wall were not plugged in where you could at least see the light operating, and a few had a weird "new fridge" smell (which often will dissipate as the unit runs) but the smell could deter potential buyers. I also noticed that the department received minimal remodeling and did not have the best lighting.

Second, the department as a whole was small. The Sears at the other end of the mall easily blows JCPenney out of the water as far as selection. One problem evident at JCPenney is a limited brand selection. The whole Whirlpool family of brands was missing, as were others such as Frigidaire. But they did have GE, LG, and Samsung. GE was the only one of the three that I know for sure offers at least some U.S. made appliances (Samsung and LG are Korean companies) While LG and Samsung are popular brands, there are folks like myself that lean toward American made on larger purchases.

Third, the lack of sales help in the department. I saw one register there, with one employee, but somebody was buying a whole bunch of towels and there was a line of people buying small items. It didn't look to me there was anybody dedicated to appliance sales. That also made me wonder if they have their own delivery people, trucks, etc. or if they use an outside vendor for that.

To sum it up: They have a LOT of work to do. Service needs improvement. And they need a larger selection of brands if they are serious about returning to this segment.

[storewanderer]

JCP has a lot of work to do period. Their stores simply suck. They are trying to act like all is going well and great for them, but their financials are still a mess. Sales are improving but after the huge drops they had improving sales isn't really very hard.

Adding appliances is an easy way to get sales numbers up with relatively few transactions but it is a low margin business and one that you can easily get burned in if you do not have the right service, delivery, maintenance, etc. Just have to look at how many people Sears upset over the years with issues with the delivery, service, and maintenance operation.

If this store today didn't even have a clerk available to assist you with appliances that tells me all I need to know about this program.

Have you ever seen a Sears appliance clerk ringing up towels? I haven't.

[Alpha8472]

I visited a JCPenney standalone Home Store this weekend. This store is about a quarter of a mile down the street from the mall where there is a full sized JCPenney store. The appliance section was on the second floor and it was much smaller than a Sears appliance department. The JCPenney store was deserted of customers and employees. It was like a ghost town. When I left the store, there was not even one employee at the cash register nearest the door. Had all of the employees abandoned the store? I felt like I had stumbled into a post apocalyptic movie where the entire human race had been wiped out long ago. There were no escalators in the store. The second floor was only accessible by a tall staircase. It would be difficult for seniors or disabled customers to get up there. I did not see an elevator. However, there is probably a freight elevator of some kind in some distant part of the store. I did not see an elevator in my search of the entire sales floor.

I also noticed that many appliances were not plugged in. Perhaps they did not even bother to spend money to add electrical outlets. The store used to be entirely furniture on the second floor and there was no work done to improve lighting or even to replace the carpeting. The appliances were placed right on top of the carpeting where the beds and mattresses use to be.

The former customer service counter in the back of the store was not being used and had junk thrown in front of it to block it off. Apparently, rather than post signs telling customers that this counter was not in use, they just felt that a mountain of debris would give customers a hint.

[mbz321]

. But they did have GE, LG, and Samsung. GE was the only one of the three that I know for sure offers at least some U.S. made appliances (Samsung and LG are Korean companies) While LG and Samsung are popular brands, there are folks like myself that lean toward American made on larger purchases.

GE's appliance division was just bought out by the Chinese conglomerate Haier, this past year. It will be interesting to see if they still build appliances in the U.S. in the upcoming years.

[storewanderer]

JCP in Reno used to have a home store across the street. A few years ago they closed it and moved it back into the mall store. The home store takes up half of the floor which previously had all men's and children's clothing, just like before they had the home store. The difference is the space allocation. They oddly kept men's clothing about the same size as before but children's got moved downstairs and some of women's clothing was cut to make room for it and they also put children's clothing into the old catalog department (all of the counter space is still there, sort of awkward). Then last year they added a Sephora department on the first floor and to make room for that cut women's, children's, and this time shoes as well. The department sizes in this store are beyond screwed up. The Sephora "box" goes almost to one of the main exterior entrances so the cashier at that door was removed and there is no cashier within eyesight of that door. I would love to see theft figures for run outs. Well maybe JCP doesn't have much worth the shoplifter's time anyway so perhaps it isn't a problem.

More recently they are adding appliances to this store in a small space in part of the home department. It was a pretty small space, nothing like the space in the store Alpha photographed above. Tiny little mix. It is a joke. JCP is a joke. JCP flat out sucks. Some other stores I may be disappointed with but there are redeeming qualities in there somewhere. With JCP there are no redeeming qualities. I don't even talk this way about Sears or Kmart despite their obvious problems. And to close, JCP sucks.

[Super S]

Today I visited another JCPenney which has added appliances. This one was at Vancouver Mall. It was in a more prominent spot on the upper level by the escalators, and it looked like some minor remodeling took place to accommodate it as there was newer looking flooring and more lighting in the department. Also, most of the refrigerators were plugged in and working. It looked like they took a little more time here, and the whole department overall looked better. However, I did take note of the fact that, despite the presence of two cash registers, there was not a single employee to be found in the department.

For JCPenney to succeed with this, they are going to have to start by actually staffing the departments. So far, I have no compelling reason to choose JCPenney to buy appliances.

I wonder how these departments are faring in the locations where Sears is not present in the mall (or has closed) as well as in the JCPenney standalone stores (of which Vancouver has one, although it is next to a Lowe's).

[rwsandiego]

This thread piqued my curiosity, so I looked at the JCPenney website thinking the store locator would specify whether a store carried appliances. It doesn't. Given that appliances are not typically impulse buys ("I went in for athletic socks and walked out with a new fridge!") one would think the locator would list whether a store carried them or not. Very strange. Then again, JCPenney is very strange.

[storewanderer]

Not listing what stores sell appliances on the website is another example of how poorly run JCP is.

If JCP turns around it will only be because Sears goes out of business and because Macy's is slated to close quite a few stores. It will not be because JCP has some magic formula to grow customer counts. Rather, it is because JCP is simply outlasting the others. This will not end well unless they improve what they are offering. There are many places off mall to go too.

I have little confidence in JCP turning around. Their service is so poor at the store, it is downright pathetic. My most recent service complaint actually warranted a reply from them so it appears their customer service department is a bit more functional than it has been in a couple years where such complaints did not even get a response.

[Super S]

Not listing what stores sell appliances on the website is another example of how poorly run JCP is.

If JCP turns around it will only be because Sears goes out of business and because Macy's is slated to close quite a few stores. It will not be because JCP has some magic formula to grow customer counts. Rather, it is because JCP is simply outlasting the others. This will not end well unless they improve what they are offering. There are many places off mall to go too.

I have little confidence in JCP turning around. Their service is so poor at the store, it is downright pathetic. My most recent service complaint actually warranted a reply from them so it appears their customer service department is a bit more functional than it has been in a couple years where such complaints did not even get a response.

While I don't think they are doing appliance sales the right way, and in general they have a LOT in the whole store that needs improvement, you do have to give JCPenney SOME credit for the fact that they realized they made quite a few mistakes and their willingness to try different things to try to turn things around. Look at the ignorance of Eddie Lampert at Sears whose arrogance with the Shop Your Way program is driving customers away in droves.

For what it's worth, the last several times I have visited JCPenney, including this visit, the stores had a lot more foot traffic and seemed a lot busier than the Sears stores in the same malls.