5 ms·

JC Penny I think?

by aurailious 8y ago

JC Penny I think?

mbreese 8y ago
And the strategy failed, CEO fired, and they went back to the old marketing/pricing.
- morganvachon 8y ago
  One of the companies I work for (a closeouts/clearance wholesaler) has a standing policy of selling nearly everything at half of the average retail price. There was a time where we would look up retail pricing on, for example, a task chair, and it would average $100 in big box stores. We would mark it $50 and advertise it as "half our competitor's prices". We had tons of customers demanding to get discounts off of our "retail" price or they would no longer shop with us. Eventually we figured out that if we marked it at the full retail price of $100, then put a tag on it that said "take 50% off", it would sell like crazy. We make the same amount of money per sale, but we sell much higher volume due to customer perception of sale prices. Now we price all merchandise that was previously subject to the half-retail rule with the same strategy.
  - z3t4 8y ago
    I remember an article about some guy that bought a TV on "sales", then scraped off the price tag, only to see that the the "Christmas sale" price was higher then the original price.
    - kalleboo 8y ago
      In EU countries there are often advertising regulations to the effect of sale prices having to be lower than the average price of that item over a certain period leading up to the sale, you can't raise the price right before a sale, etc.
      - dazc 8y ago
        Discount codes are widely used to mitigate this though. Lot's of retailers in the UK have a sales every few weeks and when there isn't a sale they have discount codes.
    - morganvachon 8y ago
      That's not at all what I'm describing. Whether our old policy of selling for half the average retail price, or tagging it at full retail but giving 50% off at the register, we were selling for half what the customer would pay in any other store for the same merchandise. What you are saying is the opposite and is extremely immoral (and likely illegal in some places).
- gingericha 8y ago
  The CEO was Ron Johnson. Alex Blumberg did an interview with him on his Without Fail podcast where he briefly talks about his time at JC Penny (along with Target and Apple). The whole interview is good, but JCP starts around the 28-29 minutes. https://www.gimletmedia.com/without-fail/the-man-behind-the-iconic-apple-stores-ron-johnson https://www.gimletmedia.com/without-fail/the-man-behind-the-...

JC Penny I think?

mbreese 8y ago

And the strategy failed, CEO fired, and they went back to the old marketing/pricing.

morganvachon 8y ago
One of the companies I work for (a closeouts/clearance wholesaler) has a standing policy of selling nearly everything at half of the average retail price. There was a time where we would look up retail pricing on, for example, a task chair, and it would average $100 in big box stores. We would mark it $50 and advertise it as "half our competitor's prices". We had tons of customers demanding to get discounts off of our "retail" price or they would no longer shop with us. Eventually we figured out that if we marked it at the full retail price of $100, then put a tag on it that said "take 50% off", it would sell like crazy. We make the same amount of money per sale, but we sell much higher volume due to customer perception of sale prices. Now we price all merchandise that was previously subject to the half-retail rule with the same strategy.
- z3t4 8y ago
  I remember an article about some guy that bought a TV on "sales", then scraped off the price tag, only to see that the the "Christmas sale" price was higher then the original price.
  - kalleboo 8y ago
    In EU countries there are often advertising regulations to the effect of sale prices having to be lower than the average price of that item over a certain period leading up to the sale, you can't raise the price right before a sale, etc.
    - dazc 8y ago
      Discount codes are widely used to mitigate this though. Lot's of retailers in the UK have a sales every few weeks and when there isn't a sale they have discount codes.
  - morganvachon 8y ago
    That's not at all what I'm describing. Whether our old policy of selling for half the average retail price, or tagging it at full retail but giving 50% off at the register, we were selling for half what the customer would pay in any other store for the same merchandise. What you are saying is the opposite and is extremely immoral (and likely illegal in some places).
gingericha 8y ago
The CEO was Ron Johnson. Alex Blumberg did an interview with him on his Without Fail podcast where he briefly talks about his time at JC Penny (along with Target and Apple). The whole interview is good, but JCP starts around the 28-29 minutes. https://www.gimletmedia.com/without-fail/the-man-behind-the-iconic-apple-stores-ron-johnson https://www.gimletmedia.com/without-fail/the-man-behind-the-...