J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by Super S »

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jc-p ... SKCN1UP2HJ

An interesting move. Worth noting is that James DePaul left Shopko in 2015, well before Shopko's bankruptcy. this doesn't exactly clarify which direction JCPenney is heading though.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by SamSpade »

Interesting. I will add that my mom loved ShopKo for home goods, so maybe he and Ms. Soltao can use some of their skills to strengthen the chain in soft goods.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by storewanderer »

JCP does not have time to be shuffling management around at this point. They needed a go to market strategy with strong merchandising and a consistent message for customers and employees last year. That message is still not coming as the company has continued to have management turnover this year and various "rumors" about financial issues, talking to creditors, bankruptcy, etc.

With the way current buys go any buying management does is six months out. At this point, that bring you to next February. This chain does not have six more months to get things right.

They were supposed to be picking customers off from Sears. And that appliance business they thought they were going to magically take over (by having inconsistently staffed departments buried in low traffic upstairs corners...). Sears closed how many stores the past two years where JCP is still in those malls? What happened. Looks like the customers just flat out left the mall. I can't blame them. JCP is pretty terrible. Kohl's has a nicer more modern store, better marketing, better website, easier parking, and is often closer to home.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: August 3rd, 2019, 9:45 pm JCP does not have time to be shuffling management around at this point. They needed a go to market strategy with strong merchandising and a consistent message for customers and employees last year. That message is still not coming as the company has continued to have management turnover this year and various "rumors" about financial issues, talking to creditors, bankruptcy, etc.

With the way current buys go any buying management does is six months out. At this point, that bring you to next February. This chain does not have six more months to get things right.

They were supposed to be picking customers off from Sears. And that appliance business they thought they were going to magically take over (by having inconsistently staffed departments buried in low traffic upstairs corners...). Sears closed how many stores the past two years where JCP is still in those malls? What happened. Looks like the customers just flat out left the mall. I can't blame them. JCP is pretty terrible. Kohl's has a nicer more modern store, better marketing, better website, easier parking, and is often closer to home.
JCPenney was moving in the right direction by building the freestanding locations. But they failed by not bringing some of the same aspects to the mall stores such as centralized checkout. Kohl's has gone in to some malls but brings many aspects of their freestanding stores and has a more consistent experience. JCPenney has probably picked up some customers as the Sears stores in the same malls have closed, but Sears wasn't exactly the go-to place for softlines goods. I think the appliance debacle would have worked out a little better if, in the beginning, JCPenney staffed the departments properly and had better brand coverage. Not to mention better presentation. One location I went to had a very nice display near the escalators in plain view. Another had the department shoved in a corner and didn't even have anything plugged in.

This is an interesting time for mall stores, as even the better-run "grade A" malls are starting to see high profile vacancies.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by pseudo3d »

JCPenney needs better stores altogether, with many stores badly outdated. The city's local Kohl's is on a main strip, and while not overly fancy, is a well-kept store with a racetrack floorplan and well merchandised, while the local JCPenney is a run-down, understaffed dump, and the mall isn't much better.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by storewanderer »

I went into the local JCP Store tonight. I see a few changes in there.

The clearance area for women's clothing keeps expanding. At this point it is probably 25% of the floor space for women's clothing. Really old looking stuff there. Little activity. The Macy's "Last Act" area and "Backstage" areas had significantly more activity tonight.

Appliances are gone and replaced by a very large luggage and expanded "home decor" area. The "home decor" was all 70% off with laughably high regular retails; even the discounted prices looked high.

The entire second floor at 7 PM only had one employee present on the sales floor/cashier area. The second floor contains mens and home departments and is a full size second floor (actually has more sales space than the first floor).

Prices are laughably bad. Men's house brand Dress Shirts "buy one get one free" paying $60 for the first one. These shirts are not even worth a $19.99 price point. Maybe $9.99. Maybe. I think they had some other items "buy one get one free" at laughably high regular retails too.

While looking around, overheard PA announcements for "extra 20% off with JCP Card and coupon, 15% off with other form of payment and coupon, or download the JCP App to get these coupon offers." Over at Macy's, all transactions with the Macy's Card get 20% off automatically (no coupon; the total drops by the 20% when the Macy's card is run as method of payment). Why can't they make this automatic like Macy's has for many years? Is their POS that outdated (Macy's POS is pretty outdated too...).
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by cjd »

Heard a brief bit on the news this morning, that JCPenney is considering selling used clothing in its stores through thredUP, a resale website.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/penney-f ... 09998.html
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by storewanderer »

cjd wrote: August 16th, 2019, 8:05 pm Heard a brief bit on the news this morning, that JCPenney is considering selling used clothing in its stores through thredUP, a resale website.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/penney-f ... 09998.html
I wonder if their lease agreements will allow for this. Typically malls do not sell "used" products.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by cjd »

storewanderer wrote: August 16th, 2019, 9:11 pmI wonder if their lease agreements will allow for this. Typically malls do not sell "used" products.
It seems common for malls here to have video game stores that sell used retro game cartridges, and Gamestops sell used games and consoles. So I don't know.
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Re: J.C. Penney hires former Shopko executive to aid turnaround

Post by Super S »

cjd wrote: August 17th, 2019, 5:34 am
storewanderer wrote: August 16th, 2019, 9:11 pmI wonder if their lease agreements will allow for this. Typically malls do not sell "used" products.
It seems common for malls here to have video game stores that sell used retro game cartridges, and Gamestops sell used games and consoles. So I don't know.

Stores in malls do sell refurbished items such as cell phones, and in malls that still have a Sears, sometimes they have discounted items that were returned. All of those are technically "used".
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