“J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) is cutting an additional 2,200 jobs to trim costs as Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson’s revamp of the department-store chain causes sales to plunge,” Sapna Maheshwari reports for Bloomberg. “The positions to be eliminated include back-office administrators in stores and district offices as well as store leadership positions, Joey Thomas, a spokesman, said in an e- mail yesterday. About 10 percent of J.C. Penney’s 1,100 stores cut their headcounts because of sales volume shifts, he said.”
Maheshwari reports, “Johnson said last week that 19,000 J.C. Penney employees have lost their jobs in the past year as his turnaround struggles to gain traction. The retailer’s revenue fell 25 percent to $13 billion in the year ended Feb. 2, the lowest since at least 1987. Customers have been alienated by marketing missteps, a failed attempt to transition away from sales and coupons and Johnson’s plan to turn most stores into collections of boutiques.”
Maheshwari reports, “The retailer operates about 1,100 stores, according to a Feb. 27 statement. J.C. Penney employed 159,000 people as of January 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Woolworth’s circa 1985.
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Ron needs to implement a company-wide “Ladies Underwear – Half Off” sale.
might help bottom line.
Who needs to give it a rest now?
Not as uplifting when it’s half off.
Is Apple holding a position for Ron?
Looking around JCPs close to my house I find a large area closed off due to renovation. I also find the renovated areas to be very well done.
When you have 1,100 stores moving from a 50’s look ago a well designed contemporary store takes efforts Closing off part of the store for renovation is going to hit sales. No surprise there.
As an old retailer I believe we need to give the company the time to complete renovations and then see how things work out.
I don’t think the ‘look’ is the problem. It is the customer service and the products that have to change. If I want cheap prices, there is Wallmart, if I want unique clothes there are boutiques, if I want great service there is . . . ?
Ron,
Didn’t you ever hear the saying: You can’t put lipstick on a pig!
Didn’t you say this already about that on June 14, 2011??
And it is still true.
Actually you can! with difficulty and the end look will not transmogrify a snout into luscious lips, that is if the pig has eaten the lipstick and your hand as well!!!
I actually think that it will be difficult to turn JCP around no matter what Ron tries. I think that unless they do a complete rebranding, that nothing is going to help. J.C. Penny in most minds is equated to a retailer like Sears. No matter how glitzy the ad campaigns, or the changes to pricing, I think that younger people are going to avoid JCP in general.
Will be interesting to see how long the board gives him to try to turn things around. So far, everything he’s tried has been a failure, and may have actually hurt the brand.
So here is a possible scenario:
1) Ron gets canned and pockets a few million as a going away present. That while thousands lose their jobs as a result.
2) Timmy has Ron come back and return to his old job, which probably an average sales or marketing student right out of college would have succeeded at so long as he/she did exactly like Steve Jobs instructed.
3) JCP goes under, which it would have done anyway because it is an old and decrepit company that lasted many years longer than it should have.
JCP is not Apple. Too many people mistakenly believe that what works at one place will work at a different place. JCP is a cheap brand has been. Johnson’s erred.
Try this Ron, read everything you can on James Cash Penny’s bio, you know, the man that started JC Pennys from scratch and built a successful business out of it and just implement his philosophy towards store looks, products, service and pricing. Might bring you better results.
JCP is not an Apple Store Ron.
Tick tick tick tick tick
If the trend continues: J.C. Puny.
Why firing another 2,200 employee on top of 19.000 employee he laid off since the transformation .
Why not firing Ron . Almost thousand of employee who worked there for 30 years .
Next thing you know only Ron Johnson worked by himself at JCPenny