The Rise and Fall of JC Penney 

JCPenney has most of their stores at malls, but now that is a disadvantage as people don't go to malls like they used to and many malls are struggling/dying

The real problem with Ron Johnson’s pricing scheme is that instead of looking at a pair of pants that was marked at $50 and usually sold for $25 after coupons and marking it at a realistic $25, they marked it at $35 so that they would actually make more money per item with their “every day low prices” while at the same time changing the manufacturers of all of their in-house brands to produce lower quality clothing. I was an “only JCPenney shopper“ at the time, and they clearly cut the quality of their in-house clothing labels, at which point I stopped shopping there. I could have coped with a no coupon strategy but not with a loss of quality.

I remember when this channel had like 5k subs, congrats on 100k

JCPenney never recovered from Ron Johnson. You don't sell clothes and other household items they way you sell electronics. That was a big mistake at JCPenney - getting rid of coupons and discounts which Kohl's still does

Johnson also discontinued basic clothing products that people (like me) had bought for decades. I’ve never found an equivalent replacement. Johnson destroyed the company.

Sears was killed by Eddie Lampert. JCPenney was ruined by Ron Johnson.

You should cover Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. An iconic department store name since the 1600s that is dying as well.

As someone who has worked for the Salon inside JCPenney for almost 7 years. This hit hard.

JCPenney’s is just like Sears there is no hope for them at all, everytime I set foot in one, it’s the same depressing feeling I get when Sears was still around. 😞

"They started selling online as early as 1983". Really...so a few months after the internet entered the public domain, JC Penney opened an online store so they could sell T-shirts to a handful of tech geeks at universities. Sure they did...

There are many holes in this overview. I worked for JC Penney in the 1980s when I was in college. They were a powerhouse at that time. Unlike Sears and Wards, Penney’s had refocused their efforts to try and attract a more affluent customer. They had high quality in house brands that one could only get their - St John’s Bay, Worthington, Par Four, Stafford and many others. They had discontinued their auto centers, appliances and remodeled stores. The in store reports reflected their competition in Houston as Foley’s and Joske’s (upscale regional Houston based chains) and not Sears or Wards. The suit department had in house tailors and the furniture department was a strong performer and their home department, especially draperies, towels, sheets, etc were top notch and a large market share. In the late 90s/early 2000s more emphasis was being put on coupons to drive sales. An exclusive contract with Ralph Lauren to create the American Living line in clothing, jewelry and home goods was also initiated. JC Penney had billions in cash on hand and the majority of their employees had been with them for years. Where in the world did you get that they began selling online in 1983? The internet wasn’t even around then. It was at least the 90s when they began any internet presence. The biggest mistake the Penney board ever made was hiring Ron Johnson. You neglect to mention he rolled his ill conceived transformation nationwide without any test marketing. That alone should have been cause to fire the board. They discontinued legacy lines of goods that customers trusted and purchased exclusively at Penney’s for decades. Stopped all sales and coupons. Cheapened their product lines that remained with horrible quality goods. Anything to alienate a long standing customer they did. The remodeling that was done was inconsistent. They ripped up flooring and put in cheap fixtures in some departments while leaving other departments intact. Advertising for Easter sales with two dads and two moms to appease their new spokesperson Ellen caused backlash from what remained of their core family oriented customer. Tens of thousands of older employees that knew their products and customers were fired or forced into retirement being replaced with hipsters that could care less. Dress codes for employees were dropped. The whole Ron Johnson initiative was a disaster. The company blew through all their billions in cash reserves and quickly tanked. Uhlman was called back but it was too late.

I have been in one JC store in my life but no one sold online on 1983

3:13 I really wish people would stop showcasing the Australian Kmart when they're referring to a completely different store talking about the US one.

I still remember when you had 500 subs and your videos has always been amazing, congrats on the growth!!

In 1999 at the dawn of my software developer career, I actually had a pre-interview with JC Penney. That is, I met for lunch with one of the consultants out there. They had a pretty nice web development operation at HQ at the time. But you had to wear a suit to work. Also, I was told my long hair was a no-go. I passed on the opportunity for those reasons. See? JC Penney would be a powerhouse today had they just hired me!

macy's, dillards, etc...they are all doomed. ecommerce, zoom, etc will kill almost all bricks and mortar retail and office work. landlords got too greedy and prices had to absorb overpriced rent.

You talk about the fall of JC Penney as if it were mostly the cause of a few bad business decisions. However, the more I look at data and the lasting effects of the 2008 great recession (I'm starting to believe it was actually a great depression), I think that too was a contributor to it's failure. Yes, you are spot on about the coupons vs full price. But fundamentally, the consumer is broke and the economy never fully recovered. The fear of another 2008 event is fueling fear in consumers which (to me) contributing to the decline in retail and everything in general. Nice channel!

the problem many of these giant legacy brands have is that they are still located inside shopping malls and many people have stopped going to shopping malls, and another problem many have is that they refuse to change the brand's image and the store's image inside the stores, new stores every 4 years changes the looks of their entire stores, these giants brands continue to use the same old school look inside their stores which makes people see them as boring and that there nothing new and exciting happening within the stores, which also make a lot of people stay away from these old legacy brands, I think if these stores want to survive this new era they need to get their stores out of the mall concept, go online and if they have front stores change their whole store's entire look, rebrand the entire brand, even going as far as to change the name of the brand if they have to.

Ackman hired Johnson who wanted to take every store and convert it to a shop within a store concept. In the infamous investor meeting on 2/1/12, Johnson bragged that each store would be under construction for the next two years. Ignoring the CapEx limitations, who wants to shop in a store that is constantly under construction for two years? Both Ackman and Johnson are fools.

Great work dude congrats on 100k. Been here since 2.3k not so long ago. Consistency and quality. Keep it up!

Sears and JC Penney should not be compared to Target and Walmart. You can get groceries at Walmart. The first two never had groceries. They should say why is Macy's doing better?

Yep, no coupons made them lose my business.

2:40 JC Penney started selling online in 1983? You sure about that? I was alive back then. didn't know of anyone buying anything online. Or getting online at all for that matter. lol

Only time will tell if Simon & Brookfield can save JCPenney from going to the grave like Sears has

I have shopped in jcpenny since I was kids . They have cheap quality products at high price.they have big sale on weekends drawn big crowds before Ron Johnson.

I never really shopped there as an adult besides getting some nice new ties for job interviews.

6:40 This shows what he is experienced in. Designing for the affluent, not middle class.

It’s a shame!!!! Nothing is for ever.😔

When you have a retail business see what young people are doing, where they are going. What they want. You can get a single product at wholesale price on Alibaba nowadays, even when not buying wholesale. And a lot of stores have conceited employees.

Was there even an “online” in 1983?

The people who downvoted are holding JC penney bags lmao.

I remember when this channel had like 2mil subs

These videos are amazing

“They started selling online as early as 1983”????

The only difference between them and target/Walmart is marketing and management

Why do people still invest money with Ackman

CEO’s are often have such huge egos that they think they can fix the unfixable.

The JCP by my home is still open. For now ☺️

To Bad I Bought Most Of Our Household Appliances at Jc Penney. One of my first credit cars was from Jc Penney

2:40 Did you mean they first started selling online in 1993? 1983 is before the internet.

I would like to know, why would someone purchase rest of assets, from a failed company, gone bankrupt? Is that retail space?

Ron Johnson - had nothing to do with Apple Retails Success!

My Question is who's working for Walmart that will overpass them like Sam did with JC 🤔✌️

They sold online as early as 1983? You must mean 1993?

1983? Where? QuantumLink? Internal BBS from the catalogue?

After JC Penney made Ellen the Degenerate their spokesperson, I cut up my card and threw it in the trash, vowing NEVER to shop at any of their stores again. Now Target has decided to stop being a department store and join the PERVERSION movement and I refuse, under ANY circumstances, to ever go into one of their stores again!

4:05 You see from the chart that JCPenny reported much better profit margins during the last 3 months of each year, clearly showing a lot of Christmas shopping was being done there.

YOU NEVER KNOW what TOMORROW HOLDS!!! You should always PLAY IT COOL!!!

Can you do the Australian company Dick Smiths?

Selling online in 1983?

Hey where did you learn how to lie Circle? Jc Penney -sometime in england

JC-Penny was the best. This is where all all school clothing came from growing up.

over price

You really felt the need to cover this, after it’s been covered by like everyone already?

We want JCP to come back(from Atlantic City New Jersey)

We still have our JCPenneys but it’s still expensive. When you price ending in .97 you couldn’t use a coupon on one item, always had to buy more. Their stuff just looks old and my teens never liked Arizona, even their Nike line. Too little, too late. I usually buy clearance items only.

I got my engagement ring through JCPenney, we are having the ring sized through them but they have had it weeks longer than they should have. We're getting really annoyed.

So what was the golden rule...

JCPenney,a good place to shop.A terrible place to work!!!I worked there for15years They don't give a shit about their employees!!!

My mama would call it it "J. C. Pennée" so that it wouldn't sound like a poor-peoples' shop 🤣

how would jc penny make a comeback?

I would’ve converted their big supermarket sized stores into regular stores offering delicatessen food stuffs, in-house butchers/ mongers and etc, kitchen wares for aspiring cooks shopping at the location and house brands (for price conscious customers), the name has the potential to become a fancy brand associated with quality.

GOOD, start making shit that actually fits and have more variety. I dont feel bad for any of these stores losing to "amazon"

Penny's have been mismanaged for years.

I'd have given anything for crowded mall culture to have lived forever.

The legacy auto and their dealerships will follow this fate.

Will really like I have the chance to copy and paste your portfolio if you trade please or an investor even more , you have a great insight and intuition on the way to explain on the videos , please it will be an honour to have the ability to really understand the world and really help me too financially , if you get what I mean

Sephora left JCPenney and moved to Kohl's

Nice facts

I think JCPenny will be re-listed and it will come back strong.

Over 20 years ago, I bought some shares in JCP. That and other stock purchases put me in my place and I went back to mutual funds. Parents and myself shopped there for decades. I remember as a kid seeing a picture of the old fart himself hanging on the wall. He was still around back then.

Will Facebook ever collapse?

I used to like Jc penny but the style is awful now the woman’s section is all elderly and the junior section is all crop tops there is no in-between I was there once and they had a shirt that was the same material of my towel but it was mustard colored

You spelled Penney wrong in the title.

I realy appreciate your content. Your POV is also very intriguing with a very personal feel , it's like we know each other and are brainstorming together I have a very visual thought process haha . All this is weird Haha oh well ... Please do a video concerning a baked goods food processing company that's killing it . I have a couple bakerys we all about that guy cake , I'm 25 in an emerging market, there's very large unexploited markets. big uncharted green grounds , its urbanizing at an incredible rate . I'm graduating in a year and have really been thinking about the food processing sector and would like to explore it but with big long term objectives from the start setting up the right foundations to really scale with a dominant regional presence .there's still space for giants to be born here . My background is in finance and Economics, my mind has been more focused on investing and funds . The sme started as a way to generate me some cashflow with out much serious growth plans but when you see something you can un see it . So please show us something about processing. I just like seeing how others played thirs moves and strategies , to help me make better decisions.... otherwise I love the channel. Day 1 subscriber . Keep doing your thing

REST IN PEACE J C PENNY

3:45 Can you write like that?

We used to shop at JC penny song is dope look it up

I'm truly passionate about going to Harbor Freight I just like going there and I like buying their things. Everything else I buy on Amazon even food sometimes.

Don't hire Johnson again 😐

Ackman is an over rated clown

Target is next

Jewelry counter sales person place Necklace around your Neck then leave !

The last time I went to a JC Penny, it was a mess with merchandise all over the place and loss prevention was hassling everyone. Good riddance.

Sam Walton sure learnt a thing or two or built a better mousetrap. Juz go bankrupt la…jc will become a penny stock

HODL BBIG Marines 🚀🚀

Jc penny stocks

Ackman is fraud like Chamath 😂

Me da pena cuando algo tan icónico y nacional se pierde, aveces x la mala administración y los empleados, también pueden arruinar una empresa, lo digo x experiencia. Es una pena k compañías, realmente americanas cierren sus puertas, ya el valor, respeto y lealtad se a perdido.

I was here first!