Hmm, three times the space for only double the revenue? Doesn't sound that good.
I think he meant selection by size. Or sizes. In other words, actually having the size and style you are looking for, like the gap often does, so you don't end up going somewhere else because you couldn't find your size.
It doesn't matter if it was because the no coupon thing before the remodel or whatever other reason it's bleeding. It's clearly is a lack of execution.
Ron is not CEO material. He had 2 years and cut 43k jobs and no bottom in sight. There is a reason so few Executives are CEO/Chairman material. So few have true vision and fewer yet stick to it.
People truly don't get that Apple Executives were managed heavily by Steve. He never hesitated to tell each and everyone of these egos that they are effin' up and need to show more or hit the door.
People bent to Steve's vision and will, not the other way around. He helped create a lot of people who then left thinking it was all them. There is a reason so few people from Apple actually go on to be huge successes in their own start ups. They never had that 1% vision to lead.
Great talents each in their own rights, but never seem to grasp they never had `it' in the first place.
The same goes for Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Sun, SGI, you name executives doing their own start ups.
Technically brilliant, artistically brilliant to managerially talented but never about vision.
Steve bounced ideas constantly off of brilliant people in a hope to get a symbiotic relationship built. He had very few of those and those he did have he had for very specific roles at Apple.
Tim Cook leaving Apple to start his own business would ultimately be a disaster as well. Bertrand or Avi's own start ups will amount to nothing beyond getting some technology bought out.
Ron should have stayed at Apple. He peaked at Apple.
You are absolutely correct. My justification for feeling Ron should be brought back to Apple is precisely because he was inspired by Steve and hopefully back within the fold could continue with Steve's vision. He was apparently inspired to disagree with Steve and be proven right but as you point out that's exactly what Steve did, he brought the best out of people and they rose above the level they would otherwise have reached. I agree these folks often end up believing it was they who were great because of themselves alone, that's human nature after all. Few go on to greatness if they try to lead. This isn't only applicable to Steve and Apple, I have seen this same scenario played out many times in the computer industry of the last thirty something years. I assume it happens in all industries, I just wasn't there to see it..
Steve didn't have time to micromanage all the execs. I don't know where you got that idea. He was brilliant but wasn't God. Why would Jobs hire empty suits? Ron came up with the Genius Bar and store layout. To minimize his contributions is foolish.
If a CEO does not have the time to manage his top management team, he has no business being a CEO. SJ or not.
I have no doubt that Jobs was on top of every major detail that made Johnson successful at Apple.
"Sorry we tried to treat our customers as if they had brains. We are now going back to fooling you with raised prices and discount coupons. We will be starting bingo soon too."
p.s. Tim, bring Ron home.
LOL! So, you say when you run a store and you don't sell your products well, it's somehow... customers fault, not yours??? It's customers job to buy your products, not yours to sell your products? OMG! Are you for real???
1. Dirty run down stores (nobody wants to shop in that).
2. The stupidity of the new 3-color pricing scheme - assigned the wrong colors.
3. Stopped carrying the products we shopped at JCP for.
4. Promotion of the homosexual agenda.
JCPenny, I'm not convinced. Bringing back the former CEO sounds like another bad idea, since reason #1 happened under his watch. As for the other reasons, 3 pricing levels is stupid, but so is having a 'sale' seemingly every week. If everything is on sale all the time, then that is the 'normal' price. Find a happy medium (2 colors?) and for Pete's sake, RED is the proper color for SALE tags.
JCP is not a 'designer' store. Don't know why Ron thought it would be a good idea to try and turn it into one... There are plenty of 'designer' stores out there already, we don't need another one. Consequentially you need to bring back the products we used to shop at your store to buy.
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
Last thing - benches, chairs. Have you ever gone clothes shopping with your wife? The men folk need places to sit.
If they ever put Johnson back into retail at Apple you know apple has jumped the shark. Johnson only seemed smart because when he was in the position at apple a monkey could have run that ship. People would line up at the ends of the earth to buy iProducts then. JC Penney sells commodity goods and you actually have to be good at what you are doing in retail to make a JCP successful. Johnson does not fulfill that as everyone clearly sees now. Hopefully apple sees it too
1. Dirty run down stores (nobody wants to shop in that).
2. The stupidity of the new 3-color pricing scheme - assigned the wrong colors.
3. Stopped carrying the products we shopped at JCP for.
4. Promotion of the homosexual agenda.
...............
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
HAHAHAHA ....really??? Your going to boycott a company because of number 4? Good luck with that. Don't start shopping at Target, Macy's, GAP, Kenneth Cole, Levis or JCrew instead; they have all had ads supporting marriage equality too (Maybe you should just make your own clothes). I guess your going to throw away your computer too since Apple, Google, and Microsoft all support gay marriage and have signed a brief to the US Supreme Court in support of it. Better stay off Amazon and ebay too. I suppose your going to start growing your own food to since some of the biggest food companies like Kraft and General Mills also have come out in support of the "Homosexual Agenda" as you call it.
LOL! So, you say when you run a store and you don't sell your products well, it's somehow... customers fault, not yours??? It's customers job to buy your products, not yours to sell your products? OMG! Are you for real???
I suspect you haven't followed the entire story over the last year thus fail understand my post.
Neimann Marcus is a specialty store with significantly fewer locations. They only have 42 locations nationwide. They are also a private company.
Not even in the same league or market. They are selling specialty luxury brands not Levi, Dockers, IZOD, etc.
So what you are saying is that JCP needed to close 96% of their 1,100 stores. Then convince their board that they are going from $17 billion in revenue to $4 billion in revenue?
Also they would need to get rid of their entire inventory so they can sell things like a $600 Stefano Ricci dress shirt to the suburban Middle America crowd. I really see that working well.
The thing I've never understood about JCP is how they're trying to position themselves. They're not high end, and they're not the bargain bin. What are they? They're not communicating it to me.
Lets look at competitors. Walmart (which sells clothes and many similar items) is clearly the bargain bin. Kohls is basically the same. Target is tells me they are different and a little better, but still affordable. Macy's is "high end".
Where is JCP? Are they trying to be Target? If so, they should have taken a memo from Target's quirky ads and communicated the value they bring.
I have the same problem with Kmart. What are they?
Both are struggling and have zero mindshare (although Kmart's latest ads are clever, I still don't know what they are or why I should go there). Neither register when I'm thinking of where to shop.
Positioning is marketing 101 but is often poorly executed.
If Macy's is "high end" then I need to work a lot harder to get myself in the next higher economic class in this country. Macy's is a polished turd.
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
Hey a** wipe, if you want to be straight, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. If you feel justified saying what you're saying about gay people, then the reverse is also true. Your misinformed, backward, provincial and completely uninformed, self-hating comment presumes that there is something bad or wrong with homosexuality. I think that's where you fail. You see, gay people have a viewpoint too. If you hate men being affectionate with each other in a national commercial, then it's okay for me to hate straight people doing the same thing. Wouldn't you agree?
You are a bigot and most likely a closeted, self-hating gay man yourself who has never come to grips with his own reality. Only people like that - and those who have been brainwashed by religion - say the kind of bigoted, hateful sh*t that you did. Nobody here wants to read. As a whole, the Mac community is progressive, forward-thinking, and liberal. Tim Cook is gay. Apple petitioned the US Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8. Apple offers its employees domestic partnership benefits. You are in the wrong forum and using the wrong products, because by purchasing and using Apple products you are supporting a hell of a lot of gay causes and money going to those causes. I feel so sorry for you.
The Apple premium model will never work in a department store.
You mean like at Nordstroms?
Quote:
He should have known that from the start (too much time in a RDF). The premium model works for Apple because Apple is a brand and they have high loyalty and strict control over distribution and pricing.
Why would people pay $50 more for a product at JCP's store-within-a-store, when they can in 4 minutes walk to the other department store and buy the EXACT product for less?
JCP is not a product like Apple. JCP sells other peoples' products.
Many stores have their own branded items. He was successful at Target in developing this premium bargin branding.
Comments
I think he meant selection by size. Or sizes. In other words, actually having the size and style you are looking for, like the gap often does, so you don't end up going somewhere else because you couldn't find your size.
Neimann Marcus begs to differ.
Originally Posted by ruel24
It doesn't matter if it was because the no coupon thing before the remodel or whatever other reason it's bleeding. It's clearly is a lack of execution.
Wouldn't that prove it DOES matter?
You are absolutely correct. My justification for feeling Ron should be brought back to Apple is precisely because he was inspired by Steve and hopefully back within the fold could continue with Steve's vision. He was apparently inspired to disagree with Steve and be proven right but as you point out that's exactly what Steve did, he brought the best out of people and they rose above the level they would otherwise have reached. I agree these folks often end up believing it was they who were great because of themselves alone, that's human nature after all. Few go on to greatness if they try to lead. This isn't only applicable to Steve and Apple, I have seen this same scenario played out many times in the computer industry of the last thirty something years. I assume it happens in all industries, I just wasn't there to see it..
If a CEO does not have the time to manage his top management team, he has no business being a CEO. SJ or not.
I have no doubt that Jobs was on top of every major detail that made Johnson successful at Apple.
As far as department stores, I have some new respect for Kmart.
Johnson tried to put lipstick on a pig and it naturally failed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by digitalclips
"Sorry we tried to treat our customers as if they had brains. We are now going back to fooling you with raised prices and discount coupons. We will be starting bingo soon too."
p.s. Tim, bring Ron home.
LOL! So, you say when you run a store and you don't sell your products well, it's somehow... customers fault, not yours??? It's customers job to buy your products, not yours to sell your products? OMG! Are you for real???
We left JCP for 4 reasons:
1. Dirty run down stores (nobody wants to shop in that).
2. The stupidity of the new 3-color pricing scheme - assigned the wrong colors.
3. Stopped carrying the products we shopped at JCP for.
4. Promotion of the homosexual agenda.
JCPenny, I'm not convinced. Bringing back the former CEO sounds like another bad idea, since reason #1 happened under his watch. As for the other reasons, 3 pricing levels is stupid, but so is having a 'sale' seemingly every week. If everything is on sale all the time, then that is the 'normal' price. Find a happy medium (2 colors?) and for Pete's sake, RED is the proper color for SALE tags.
JCP is not a 'designer' store. Don't know why Ron thought it would be a good idea to try and turn it into one... There are plenty of 'designer' stores out there already, we don't need another one. Consequentially you need to bring back the products we used to shop at your store to buy.
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
Last thing - benches, chairs. Have you ever gone clothes shopping with your wife? The men folk need places to sit.
Originally Posted by mvigod
Johnson only seemed smart because when he was in the position at apple a monkey could have run that ship.
Just go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mytdave
We left JCP for 4 reasons:
1. Dirty run down stores (nobody wants to shop in that).
2. The stupidity of the new 3-color pricing scheme - assigned the wrong colors.
3. Stopped carrying the products we shopped at JCP for.
4. Promotion of the homosexual agenda.
...............
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
HAHAHAHA ....really??? Your going to boycott a company because of number 4? Good luck with that. Don't start shopping at Target, Macy's, GAP, Kenneth Cole, Levis or JCrew instead; they have all had ads supporting marriage equality too (Maybe you should just make your own clothes). I guess your going to throw away your computer too since Apple, Google, and Microsoft all support gay marriage and have signed a brief to the US Supreme Court in support of it. Better stay off Amazon and ebay too. I suppose your going to start growing your own food to since some of the biggest food companies like Kraft and General Mills also have come out in support of the "Homosexual Agenda" as you call it.
I didn't say manage. I said micromanage. Of course Jobs managed the execs but he trusted them to manage their teams largely on their own.
I suspect you haven't followed the entire story over the last year thus fail understand my post.
" If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business"
Substitute the word "gay" with "black" above, read it again, and see how bigoted this comment really is.
People are as God or Nature made them.
The crap part is bigotry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
Neimann Marcus begs to differ.
Completely different.
Neimann Marcus is a specialty store with significantly fewer locations. They only have 42 locations nationwide. They are also a private company.
Not even in the same league or market. They are selling specialty luxury brands not Levi, Dockers, IZOD, etc.
So what you are saying is that JCP needed to close 96% of their 1,100 stores. Then convince their board that they are going from $17 billion in revenue to $4 billion in revenue?
Also they would need to get rid of their entire inventory so they can sell things like a $600 Stefano Ricci dress shirt to the suburban Middle America crowd. I really see that working well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pendergast
The thing I've never understood about JCP is how they're trying to position themselves. They're not high end, and they're not the bargain bin. What are they? They're not communicating it to me.
Lets look at competitors. Walmart (which sells clothes and many similar items) is clearly the bargain bin. Kohls is basically the same. Target is tells me they are different and a little better, but still affordable. Macy's is "high end".
Where is JCP? Are they trying to be Target? If so, they should have taken a memo from Target's quirky ads and communicated the value they bring.
I have the same problem with Kmart. What are they?
Both are struggling and have zero mindshare (although Kmart's latest ads are clever, I still don't know what they are or why I should go there). Neither register when I'm thinking of where to shop.
Positioning is marketing 101 but is often poorly executed.
If Macy's is "high end" then I need to work a lot harder to get myself in the next higher economic class in this country. Macy's is a polished turd.
Quote:
Stay out of politics. The advertising and promotion of homosexuality in the catalogs under Ron was the last straw for us. We cut you off completely at that point. If you are or want to be gay, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. Be in the business of being in business. I expect a company to be attentive to quality, reasonable pricing, and customer service. Keep your politics to yourself.
Hey a** wipe, if you want to be straight, fine I don't care, but leave that crap out of the public view. If you feel justified saying what you're saying about gay people, then the reverse is also true. Your misinformed, backward, provincial and completely uninformed, self-hating comment presumes that there is something bad or wrong with homosexuality. I think that's where you fail. You see, gay people have a viewpoint too. If you hate men being affectionate with each other in a national commercial, then it's okay for me to hate straight people doing the same thing. Wouldn't you agree?
You are a bigot and most likely a closeted, self-hating gay man yourself who has never come to grips with his own reality. Only people like that - and those who have been brainwashed by religion - say the kind of bigoted, hateful sh*t that you did. Nobody here wants to read. As a whole, the Mac community is progressive, forward-thinking, and liberal. Tim Cook is gay. Apple petitioned the US Supreme Court to strike down Prop 8. Apple offers its employees domestic partnership benefits. You are in the wrong forum and using the wrong products, because by purchasing and using Apple products you are supporting a hell of a lot of gay causes and money going to those causes. I feel so sorry for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by malta
The Apple premium model will never work in a department store.
You mean like at Nordstroms?
Quote:
He should have known that from the start (too much time in a RDF). The premium model works for Apple because Apple is a brand and they have high loyalty and strict control over distribution and pricing.
Why would people pay $50 more for a product at JCP's store-within-a-store, when they can in 4 minutes walk to the other department store and buy the EXACT product for less?
JCP is not a product like Apple. JCP sells other peoples' products.
Many stores have their own branded items. He was successful at Target in developing this premium bargin branding.