JCPenney to resume appliance sales

[pseudo3d]

Sears Grand might've worked but one year later, Eddie Lampert took over and all that disappeared.

[arizonaguy]

Sears Grand might've worked but one year later, Eddie Lampert took over and all that disappeared.

They really appeared to be making an effort.

Kmart was terminally ill before Lampert came into the picture. Sears, on the other hand, could've been saved with the right management. It's way too late now.

[architect]

I'm a millennial and department stores as a whole don't appeal to millennials. Millennials like specialty stores like Express, Eddie Bauer, Banana Republic, or Victoria's Secret. They also tend to like discount stores like Ross, TJMaxx, Marshall's, DSW Shoes, and Nordstrom Rack. Target is also a popular millennial shopping destination (especially for millennials with kids). This is the reason that Macy's is doing so poorly. There is almost NO appeal to Macy's for any millennials. Same can be said for Dillard's, Belk, and any other mid-line department store chain. JCPenney and Kohl's are at least on the discount side of things which millennials are more comfortable with but are still not the preferred stores for millennials to shop at.

As far as JCPenney. I bought a number of their private label clothes about 4-5 years ago that are still of good quality. They're the St. John's Bay brand. However my parents have bought a number of appliances at Lowe's recently (I rent so I haven't purchased appliances yet) and seem very happy with Lowe's. They had some awful experiences with Sears.

JCPenney may survive for a while. They don't appear to be a dying chain. They need to work on some of their older stores (and close some marginal properties) but their stores still give the appearance of life. Sears and Kmart have received $0 capital investments since Eddie Lampert took over and really are well past the point of no return. I don't expect there to be many, if any, of their stores around 5 years from now.

I'm honestly both surprised and excited we have so many millennials here; I am one too.

Also, I completely agree with arizonaguy's assessment of the problems facing traditional mid-line department stores, and would also add that mid-line department stores such as Macy's, Dillard's and Belk are caught in a quandary of trying to appeal to shoppers increasingly accustomed to discounts, while not cheapening the level of service in their stores and also maintaining the brand standards of the lines they carry (some of which are quite strict, such as Polo Ralph Lauren). They either have the choice of abandoning their core customer and moving downscale (which puts them in direct competition with Kohl's and JCPenney, among the other retailers mentioned), or keeping the status quo and trying to appeal to an increasingly disappearing middle-class.

[Super S]

I'm a millenial and I don't know any who shop at JCP and when I go into the local JCP while it does have a good amount of foot traffic, there are virtually no millenials shopping there. The store downsized its children's department recently and in general is really poorly assorted. It is also messy and has outrageous prices. Kohl's is the one that I find most popular with millenials as far as department stores go.

JCP has such bad numbers they are going against, that is the only reason they are showing good results at present.

JCP also has terrible customer service at the store level and I made a service complaint to them and their customer service ignored my e-mail. I tried to push my complaint up the chain to some of their executives and I got a call saying they "received my complaint and would get back to me" and nobody ever did; this was over a month ago now. This chain is broken from the top down. Really broken.

We will see how they are doing in a year or two.

I will agree somewhat about the service at the store level. Instead of having a dedicated service desk (a necessity in the larger stores) you have registers doubling as service desks often staffed by only one person, who will have a register tied up doing credit card payments, returns, opening new accounts, etc. while people are waiting simply to make a purchase. This has been an issue to some extent at Sears and other department stores as well. If you have a dedicated service desk it keeps registers free for actually making sales.

[storewanderer]

I agree I may have been expecting too much when I asked the employee for help. But I did not know the category and didn't really know what I was looking for, just had a paper that said what to buy (size/age/gender/product types) and did not find what I needed on my own so I asked.

Dillard's still has a customer service counter in its stores I have noticed. Are they the only one?

[Super S]

I agree I may have been expecting too much when I asked the employee for help. But I did not know the category and didn't really know what I was looking for, just had a paper that said what to buy (size/age/gender/product types) and did not find what I needed on my own so I asked.

Dillard's still has a customer service counter in its stores I have noticed. Are they the only one?

Kohl's has service counters, but they are typically tucked away in a back corner of the store. JCPenney did away with many of their counters during the Ron Johnson era. I can't say whether or not Macy's has them as I don't really shop there. I have not seen them in Sears in a long time.

A small, low-volume store doesn't really need a dedicated counter. But in a larger store the main registers should be kept free for making purchases so the lines do not build up. I have, on more than one occasion, put down what I was going to purchase and left both JCPenney and Sears after the lines did not move in a 10 minute period because the registers were tied up for reasons other than ringing up a purchase.

[J-Man]

I've noticed that some Kohl's stores now have a service desk in the front, adjacent to the registers (where it can be used as a checkout lane if needed.)

One thing I hate about the changes to JCPenney is that they don't have a catalog pickup desk anymore; you have to go to a specific department to pick up your order, where the clerks also have to handle the customers who are actually shopping in that department. At least Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy have dedicated locations for store pickup (for now, anyway.)

[mbz321]

I've noticed that some Kohl's stores now have a service desk in the front, adjacent to the registers (where it can be used as a checkout lane if needed.)

I always found it odd that Kohl's had their service desk in the back...I guess the idea was so shoppers see other merchandise on the way to make a return or whatever, but it seems like it would make it a lot easier for scammers to pull some kind of theft/return fraud.

[storewanderer]

I too never understood the Kohl's back corner service desks from a loss prevention perspective. The last two Kohl's opened in my area, one has it on the side wall (near front corner) and the other (a small former Mervyns) has it against the front wall. Maybe they are learning.

Kohl's is one of those places that allows no receipt returns too making it even more of a puzzle. But I understand they randomly flag certain IDs and also flag them after too many transactions over a certain time period for something called "corp refund" which means the store takes your return from you and then you supposedly get a check from corporate in a week or two. But I have been told what really happens is their corporate loss prevention tries to use various data to determine if you really deserve the refund or if it is a fraud instance.

I've never had the pleasure of experiencing how the Kohl's "corp refund" works since they are also a retailer with very reliable credit card receipt look up (even works on .com orders you return to the store and their system is super quick).

[Super S]

I've noticed that some Kohl's stores now have a service desk in the front, adjacent to the registers (where it can be used as a checkout lane if needed.)

One thing I hate about the changes to JCPenney is that they don't have a catalog pickup desk anymore; you have to go to a specific department to pick up your order, where the clerks also have to handle the customers who are actually shopping in that department. At least Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Best Buy have dedicated locations for store pickup (for now, anyway.)

The catalog pickup desk was basically JCPenney's version of a dedicated counter. When you have to go to a department to pick up an order, then the person working that department has to leave to fetch the item, it makes for some long waits. Especially in large, multi-level stores. That is one of the issues I have seen which has caused me to put down what I was going to buy and leave.