The death of 'fair and square' retail pricing...

[travelover]

I want personal, local service. I just don't want to pay extra for it.

 

[EvrClrx311]

Seems nuts to me but consumers apparently like playing price games...

It is crazy how much of a psychological game pricing is, but on some level I think consumers realize that the game allows them to get better deals... in theory. They don't want to lose that. With homework and discipline, many feel they are better off in that kind of market because they can wait for the deal...

However, in reality what ends up happening is most people think they are better than average at getting the deals - illusory superiority complex - but they miscalculate the times they end up paying more by purchasing something that looks like a great deal but really isn't... or the times they shop at store XYZ spur of the moment and pay full price because they just have to have the suit or dress for an important party this weekend. Those higher prices are really what pays for the deals people get at other times.

This reminds me of credit cards... no one goes out and gets a credit card thinking "Awesome, I'd love to pay you 15% back on this money I'm going to borrow now". Well I shouldn't say no one, because I'm sure there are some out there who do... but in general people get the cards thinking they'll take advantage of the perks (cash back, miles, etc...)... the card companies know a certain number will fall victim to this "game" and end up paying more for it to make up for the rest who play the game to their advantage...

Moral of it: Keep the crazy pricing... as long as I'm not falling victim to it, I rather prefer the bargains that I'm willing to wait for.

(doesn't exactly fit the mindset of this board... which is why I can see the bewilderment)

 

[Nords]

The death of 'fair and square' retail pricing...

It is crazy how much of a psychological game pricing is, but on some level I think consumers realize that the game allows them to get better deals... in theory. They don't want to lose that. With homework and discipline, many feel they are better off in that kind of market because they can wait for the deal...

I never even heard of JCP's price campaign. I'm having a hard time remembering the last time I set foot in one of their stores.

Best Buy for cameras, digital frames, and cell phones just pissed me off several years ago. Too many things locked up and inaccessible to the customers, clerks not knowledgeable about product features, no sympathy for presbyopians. They might be doing it differently today but I haven't felt any need to risk the same experience.

Upon further reflection, I realize that I know so little about store ads and pricing because I do most of my shopping at two places which still offer 'fair and square' retail prices: Costco and ... Goodwill.

But at Goodwill I know I get a better deal on Military Discount Tuesday.

 

[Free To Canoe]

I know, and here I was singlehandedly propping up our local economy, but forgot to include those national chain stores. When will I ever learn?

Oh, wait. I'm wrong. A while back I did go to Macys to look at a purse I had been reading about on another forum. Didn't like it, and left directly. But that means I have been to a mall since ER.

Listen here Wheeeeeeeee girl! If you can take down the global economy, you can do your part to pick it back up. No get out and buy something at JCP.

 

[W2R]

Listen here Wheeeeeeeee girl! If you can take down the global economy, you can do your part to pick it back up. No get out and buy something at JCP.

But, but... it's just way too hot and humid to go to JCP today, especially with it being a Saturday. I know you would agree, were you here today. Nope, just can't do it. Or, more accurately, just don't wanna.

But still I'm doing my best with Amazon, though!! Bought that alarm clock yesterday and all. Wahoo!! That should inject a little "oomph" into the economy, by gosh... (The world economy, since it is a Sony clock.)

 

[Nodak]

Amazon collects ND sales tax so they don't have that advantage here. I still prefer going to Amazon and letting things be delivered rather than wandering around a mega store. I absolutely hate shopping. If I can go to a mom and pop store that's my first choice.

 

[Free To Canoe]

But, but... it's just way too hot and humid to go to JCP today, especially with it being a Saturday. I know you would agree, were you here today. Nope, just can't do it. Or, more accurately, just don't wanna.

But still I'm doing my best with Amazon, though!! Bought that alarm clock yesterday and all. Wahoo!! That should inject a little "oomph" into the economy, by gosh... (The world economy, since it is a Sony clock.)

That's the spirit!

 

[lemming]

I thought it was a very poor ad campaign. None of any of the stages had a'get'
No matter how many times you saw them you couldn't pin the JCP name to the commercial 10 minutes after it ran.
Target can get away with the oddball commercial because they have established the bullseye logo in every ones brain so you know the store that is being advertised.
The JP ad with the cat walking back and forth on the fence had no content and no connection to the store.
The Ellen controversy and boycott might have had some effect. I kind of thought JCP was the one fanning the flame for more publicity. Even tho those commericals were funny they did nothing to tell me what was for sale at Pennys.

 

[ShortInSeattle]

Seems to me that JCP is failing because they sell crappy merchandise. Price means nothing if you have nothing I want.

+1 this wasn't always the case. You used to be able to get quality clothes at Penney's. I found their new campaign odd. I've never felt "confused" or "lied to" because a price ended in .99 instead of .00.

It wasn't kind of me, but when they said they wanted to "simplify" pricing I decided their target market must be idiots who can't do basic math.

SIS

 

[growing_older]

What a terrible marketing campaign this must have been. I'm on a zillion JC Penney mailing lists and I get coupons and circulars all the time. I was not aware this was a new "fair price" strategy, I thought it was just another round of the same old proclamation: Now, we will have lower prices. Today. Or maybe next week. Really, no kidding this time. Maybe.

If they meant it to be more than that, here I am directly in their market and apparently high on their list to send the message, and I still didn't get it.

Also, the idea of everyday fair prices isn't new. Sears tried something similar about a decade ago and got the same results. Sales slumped and they had to bring back "sales" to generate sales volume.

 

[skipro3]

JCPenny changed their marketing because people like me could manipulate their coupon system and dang near get anything for next to nothing. I've bought everything from furniture to kitchen ware through them and paid much less than I could have anywhere else. It wasn't easy to figure out how to maximize but I'd use Penny credit card to buy a Penny gift card at the grocery store in order to get the cash back, then use Penny coupons on days Penny had things like midnite madness sales, welcome wagon discounts (available at any post office for asking), then throw in on-line codes for free shipping and other discounts and viola!! Near free, or as near as I could get it. Especially lucrative was the jewelry.

 

[Marita40]

I think the new Penney's marketing has been a disaster. The catalogs are terrible and designed (sigh) for a much younger crowd than a baby boomer like me. I still shop Penney's for some brand names such as Levis or Dockers, but little else. The store here (St. Paul) has been redesigned with a huge Sephora in its middle, furniture downstairs, and hence a huge reduction in clothes/general stuff. I also despise Best Buy: badly designed and very off putting megastore, terrible staff and hard to get anyone to help you if you don't know exactly what you want, etc. (and now news of corrupt management--go figure). One of the worst situations I had was ordering a microwave a few years ago from Best Buy online. The wrong product came and to my surprise there was no way I could return it to the local store and get a new one right from that store. The online service is completely different from the bricks and mortar store. I found this very strange. It took hours on the phone until the situation was corrected. Never again!

 

[Midpack]

The Ellen controversy and boycott might have had some effect. I kind of thought JCP was the one fanning the flame for more publicity. Even tho those commericals were funny they did nothing to tell me what was for sale at Pennys.

Wow, am I out of touch. I wasn't even aware of the controversy until just now. But I Googled and I'm not surprised at all. Seems like there's a million people outraged about one thing or another every day...and it's usually much ado about little or nothing.

 

[Delawaredave5]

You can do "standard pricing" when you have:
- Necessity products and you have developed reputation as low cost provider (Walmart, Costco), or
- Very unique products that no one else has (Apple).

JCP sells elective / impulsive clothing stuff - and nothing they have is unique. So they have no market power to pull off a "standard price" strategy.

Companies with weak brands and elective stuff are best with a "soak-em" high list price and discount like crazy to troll for lower paying customers.

 

[Dreamer]

I had to google the Ellen and jcpenney controversy also. It would be nice if people would get a life and quit finding everything so controversial.

I went to JC Penney the other day and bought a nice top and a necklace/earrings set to wear with the top. I did not find any shorts that I liked. Looking around I saw some nice summer clothing for DH and thought that I would have to get him to go there and see if he liked them.

I am not much of a shopper. I do not want to have to run to a store when they are having their sales and I don't really need anything at that time. I don't like playing their games. I for one appreciate being able to go to JCP when I want and be able to buy what I want and not feel like I am being ripped off since it is not when JCP decided to put it on sale. JCP clothing is high enough quality for DH and me.

 

[ItDontMeanAThing]

How is it possible they misread their consumers so badly? A debacle of New Coke proportions. Only charitable explanation I can think of is they decided their previous strategy was a sure slow death.

 

[tmm99]

JCPenny sells drapes and such, don't they? I got all my drapes there. They had a huge selection of drapes of different sizes, designs, colors, etc. They weren't very stylish, but they were very affordable.

I guess that's kind of like Sears with power tools. Maybe you cannot survive by having just one niche.

 

[Midpack]

I thought this was fun to play with and it includes JCP, you can sort on any column... 2011 Top 100 Retailers | STORES.org

 

[W2R]

JCPenny sells drapes and such, don't they? I got all my drapes there. They had a huge selection of drapes of different sizes, designs, colors, etc. They weren't very stylish, but they were very affordable.

I guess that's kind of like Sears with power tools. Maybe you cannot survive by having just one niche.

Frankly, I didn't really care about Craftsman tools and own none. I thought Sears' niche was cheap, practical womens' underwear. I liked their Sears brand bras. But now that Sears is on the way to becoming KMart, I found a more commonly available bra that is an adequate substitute.

 

[REWahoo]

Frankly, I didn't really care about Craftsman tools and own none. I thought Sears' niche was cheap, practical womens' underwear. I liked their bras. But now that they are gone...

I've gotta ask: do you know where your underwear went?

 

[W2R]

I've gotta ask: do you know where your underwear went?

No no, I edited my post to say "now that they are becoming KMart". And no, I don't know where ANY of my Sears brand bras went! I guess I threw them out when I started buying (more fashionable, more expensive) Bali bras. I really liked the Sears' brand because the model I preferred was very very cheap, reasonably flattering for me, and very practical as it would last forever. Apparently I was mistaken on the last phrase.... But anyway I wore that model for 50 years. If it changed, I couldn't tell it.

 

[Nords]

I've gotta ask: do you know where your underwear went?

I was more worried about why the Craftsmen tools disappeared about the same time...

 

[Sarah in SC]

No no, I edited my post to say "now that they are becoming KMart". And no, I don't know where ANY of my Sears brand bras went! I guess I threw them out when I started buying (more fashionable, more expensive) Bali bras. I really liked the Sears' brand because the model I preferred was very very cheap, reasonably flattering for me, and very practical as it would last forever. Apparently I was mistaken on the last phrase.... But anyway I wore that model for 50 years. If it changed, I couldn't tell it.

You should try the Sara Blakely "Assets" ones that Target sells. They are the best bras I've ever worn!
OT, I bought a skirt at JCP for my grandfather's funeral 6 years ago. That was my last experience in their stores. Didn't even know about the controversy/new ad campaign.

If I have to find something specific to wear, like for work, I'll go to Belk or Ann Taylor. Otherwise, I'm more of a scavenger, and the mall is the worst place I can imagine having to go.

 

[W2R]

You should try the Sara Blakely "Assets" ones that Target sells. They are the best bras I've ever worn!

I have never tried them! I'll do that, thanks. The things I learn on this forum are phenomenal.

 

[FreeAtLast]

Sales are held to also increase shopper traffic during a specific time frame. There are probably many people that have good intention of going to jc pennies but are not motovated by the fact that the sale will end.