So says the headline at Consumerist.com today, in a story that shares news of JCP’s continued downward slide:
Not even a year ago, JCPenney began its bold new venture into everyday low pricing instead of sales and coupons and the like. By June, JCP had become less hard-line about the “no sales” thing and fired the relatively new company president. And yet things have continued to slide, with sales down 27% in the last quarter.
The Wall Street Journal puts it into perspective: “Penney’s sales over the first nine months of its fiscal year have fallen by $2.7 billion, nearly equivalent to the annual revenue of department store chain Saks Inc.”
In spite of the whopper of a loss, JCP CEO Ron Johnson… says that the retailer will continue on with its plans, which includes mini stores within each JCP. But some of these decisions have really damaged the retailer’s bottom line. For instance, the choice to do away with “month-long value” sales on popular seasonal items has resulted in a $20 million/week loss to JCP.
Disregarding analysts who claim that customers are confused by JCPenney’s recent changes — and subsequent changes to those changes — Johnson claims that “the new jcp, centered around the shop concept, is gaining traction with customers every day and is surpassing our own expectations in terms of sales productivity which continues to give us confidence in our long term business model.”
O-kay. And that’s why JCP’s quietly been issuing $10-off-$10 coupons (don’t-call-them-coupons) to mail and email subscribers to try to get people back in the stores. How long can JCP survive if the amount of money it has lost in nine months equals Saks has taken in over the past year?
