Here are the three new levels of pricing we'll start seeing in February:
- Every Day -- these prices will be the most fixed, and available throughout the course of the week and month. These items will be marked with a red price tag.
- Month-Long Value -- Select items that will be on sale for (you guessed it) an entire month at a time. These items will have a white price tag.
- Best Prices -- clearance items that will get marked down on the first and third Friday of each month. These items will have a blue price tag.
Check out my review of the Fair and Square pricing and whether it will actually save you money here.
As a result of these changes, customers will also see far fewer JCPenney coupons -- so you might want to print the current $10 off $50 JCPenney coupon while you still can. Other changes include whole dollar pricing (selling something for $19 instead of $19.99) and mailing out monthly catalogs instead of larger seasonal ones.I don't know about you, but I love knowing to shop on the first and third Fridays of the month to get first crack at new clearance items!
UPDATE: JCPenney isn't the only chain promising lower prices in the near future -- Olive Garden announced this week they will be releasing lower priced menu items nationwide as well.
Read more about the new JCPenney pricing strategy here.
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Next: Target deal: Jason Wu for Target launches February 5, 2012
I work in retail-fine jewelry-and they have constant sales too. The trouble is these toolbag customers still want more discounts anyway! I think people are so used to consistent discounts and sales that there is no perceived value anymore! Retail stores need to just have decent prices and screw these daily sales-even Black Friday is not that great anymore! Stop the discounting and just have good prices. Sales can be once a month or less-remember Macy's White Flower Day sale?? It was like once a year, but you really looked forward to it and it was great sales and fun-we would make a day out of it when I was a kid!
ReplyDeleteSounds like maybe JC Penney is grasping at straws trying to save the company perhaps??
Cora Hunt Ive always shoped at Penneys because its the one place I can get clothes and shoes that fit.
DeleteI use to shop at Penney's when they carried decent brands, such as Sag Harbor and Worthinton. Nice slacks and taylored suits for plus size women, and nice blouses and sweaters. That junk they sell now is usually for the teenagers and those who still want to be. Wher do you find suits and skirts now. Wher are the better fabrics, not all of that cheap poly and cotton. Penney should be ashamed. That is why Macy's is getting a lot of your business and those speciality catalogs. You'll get a few with your pricing plan, but you would get more if your quality returned
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I will shop there anymore. I am used to getting my coupons online and in the mail every 3 weeks . I use these to do my shopping there. Prices will have to have drop a whole lot for me to continue to shop there.The value will have to be outstanding. I also think from being someone who works in retail that having employees be responsible for price tag changes weekly and monthly will cause alot of price corrections at the register. More confussion thans it's worth. Good luck jcpenney. I will check it out the next time I am there.
ReplyDeleteI prefer coupons.
ReplyDeleteDISRESPECT OF CORE CUSTOMERS AND WASTE OF TIME.
ReplyDeleteJCPenney seems to be targeting customers now with little or no disposable income. Generally speaking, Couponers have disposable income, non-Conponers don't. See this CNBC article. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46556414
What a sure-fire recipe for DISASTER!!!! Desirable shoppers are also technology-saavy. JCPenney, however, has done away with text alert coupons, as well as a user-friendly website.
While I have not completely ruled out shopping at Penney's, my purchases have dropped off by about 90%. Their prices are not competitive and they are waaay too unpredictable. When items finally do go on sale, the items are basically on clearance and are too limited in stock to make many purchases. The regular prices are not competitive and I have no sense of urgency in shopping them, since the prices can only go lower. Sale prices, on the other hand, can go higher (after the sale) so I have a sense of urgency to buy items on sale at other stores.
I did check out the month-long sales section on the website. It's unclear to me whether these prices are limited time sale prices or just the first step of marked-down prices. Since the items are in season, I rather suspect the latter, not the former (ie, the prices will most like go down further next month, not up).
JCPenney has also changed the navigation on its website so it is very difficult to find good sale prices. YOU CAN NO LONGER SEARCH BY NEW MARK-DOWNS OR PERCENT DISCOUNTED. I do not have time to peruse the entire clearance section to look for recent price drops, or the relative value of a sale price. Even if the original price is phony, the % discount does give you an idea of how much of a deal an item is. NOW YOU CANNOT PRIORITIZE YOUR SEARCHES. Again, JCPenney is ignoring the most desirable market segment of the information-loving technology-saavy customer. Somehow customers are now supposed to have an inner divining mechanism to find deals, and make those "buy vs. wait" decisions by guesswork rather than research. This makes shopping much more difficult, time-consuming and complicated.
It is also very difficult to find local store stock information. You can only find this information online if all of the stars are in alignment (eg, the item is already in stock in the catalog in the same size and color, and the database is correct.) Most items do not meet this criteria, particularly as prices start to get into a trigger range. I do not have time to randomly search Penney's stores for specific items, that's what computers are for. JCP is surely throwing away sales by obscuring their store stock information.
I am dumb-founded as to how any of this is a good strategy. I have been a JCPenney shopper for about 35 years, JCPenney is the first store and catalog that I fell in love with. They still seem to have good infrastructure (ie, stores, warehouses, some technology), however, they are completely out of touch with the consumer, and don't know who their target customer is, and generally WASTE THE MODERN CONSUMER'S TIME.