In the continuing saga of JC Penney going to an everyday-low-price strategy, JC Penney lost over $55 million and the CEO compared coupon shoppers to drug users, trying to wean them off coupons and sales.
Today, a retail analyst said that the next step should be CEO Ron Johnson leaving the company. From BizJournals.com:
After J.C. Penney cut 350 employees from its Plano headquarters Tuesday, retail analysts said they are unsure how the company can continue to follow through with its transformation strategy. One analyst even said it was time for CEO Ron Johnson to leave.
“The next step is the CEO has to go, I guess,” said Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York-based Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment-banking firm. “Because if it stays like this, the question will be, ‘What credibility does he have to do anything?’ He will have lost all credibility.” Davidowitz has previously made his position on the J.C. Penney transformation clear, saying Johnson “caused incalculable damage” to the department store chain.
J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) said Tuesday’s job cuts were part of the company’s plan to cut $900 million in annual expenses by the end of 2012. J.C. Penney executives declined requests for an interview.
The drop in sales is mainly due to the lack of coupons, Davidowitz and Hill agreed.
Davidowitz didn’t offer many solutions for J.C. Penney, saying, “I’d have to spend months figuring out what to do because the mess is so deep.” He still can’t believe that J.C. Penney would abandon its core customer so quickly in order to test a new pricing and marketing strategy.
christina23 says
the 350 folks who lost their jobs yesterday. They don’t have the golden parachute that this guy has. How sad…