Enough, already

J.C. Penney’s new CEO is taking an interesting approach to the Applification of the retail giant. As of today, no more sales-du-jour; just consistent, low pricing.

& when I say “sales-du-jour”, I mean even more than that: last year they ran 590 sales.

I don’t know how they do that—sales on sales, I guess.

But Ron Johnson led Target for some years before moving to run retail operations at Apple. You can apparently thank him for the no-discount but really cool Apple Store ambience. (If you don’t know about Apple stores, all the customers look like they came from either Skid Row or a developers’ bullpen & the fixtures & the help are all minimalist chic.) He seems to be intending to meld the low prices of the former with the…well, the experience of the latter.

If so, he’s got a long row to hoe. I haven’t been in a Penney’s store in a while (by which I mean somewhere around 30 years), but peering into them at the mall, they strike me as seriously shabby.

Meanwhile, the company has been running commercials touting the shift in strategy. See for yourself.

 Here's what I wonder: if it works for Penney's, will Macy's follow suit? I certainly hope so, because they must run at least 600 sales per year, too.