Because I’m a dedicated and enthusiastic
shopper investigative fashion reporter, today I delayed my usual weekday routine of getting home from work and plopping down on the couch in my PJs. Instead, just for you all, I went shopping covered the breaking fashion news of new pricing at JCPenney. All day I’d been hearing and reading about JCP ditching multiple sales and discounts for a simpler three-tiered pricing schedule, and I wanted to see for myself. I expected to find crowds of curious shoppers eager to check out this new approach — and maybe that was true at some JCPenney stores. But not at mine. You pretty much could hear the crickets chirping at the JCP I visited … along with laughter and animated conversation coming from the employees, who were having way too much fun talking to get distracted by mere customers. I have to admit that I’m not a JCP fan and I didn’t see anything on my recon run that would change my mind. But in the pursuit of truth and justice and possible bargain buys, I’ll keep looking. Just for you.
Yes, it’s taken some time for customers to get used to the ‘new pricing strategy’ at JCP. It took all of Jan. 2012 to re-price every existing piece of merchandise in the store. At first it was a painful experience when merchandise was arriving during this initiative and it wasn’t priced correctly. This was supposed to be done at the SSC (Store Support Center). Associates are currently re-explaining the ‘every day price, best price and month long (sale) prices’ to customers. Perhaps if the advertisements explained in plain English…