One point the post makes is the failure of the restructuring of J.C. Penney. I don't agree that it was a total failure, I just think the board lacked the coura

One point the post makes is the failure of the restructuring of J.C. Penney. I don't agree that it was a total failure, I just think the board lacked the courage to get through the hard times that had been predicted by Johnson from the beginning. Yes, it scares away the coupon clippers, but re-establishing trust in a brand takes some time. Everyone is tired of the idea of these one-day sales that happen at random times, and they make stores less appealing because it always feels like you're missing out on some deal if you just waited, which usually means that you just go to Amazon instead. The customers you lose (the coupon-clippers and budget shoppers) are the worst possible customers, and in the long run you'll be better off without them. I caught wind of the changes too late; by the time I got around to visiting one of their stores, they had reverted to the insane random discount model, so I couldn't make any headway because every sticker read like an essay; with some insanely high price "marked down" to a slightly more reasonable price, and my faith that either price was real was practically zero. I guess we'll never know unless another store tries to give it a go; the model of "buy a bunch of stuff online and return all the stuff that doesn't work" feels wasteful and limiting, and physically browsing is just a better experience except for the convenience, so anything to make the brick-and-mortar experience more predictable is welcome.