Exactly One Year After JCPenney Swore Off Sales, It's Having A Sales Event
On February 1, JCPenney will be holding a sales event, sources told us.
But it's still not calling the "event" a "sale."
The event seems to be a Valentine's Day sale for fine jewelry.
It's happening precisely one year after JCPenney changed its pricing strategy to "every day low prices" as part of CEO Ron Johnson's initiative to wean customers off of sales and coupons.
"It's like we're going back to 2011 all over again," one JCPenney employee told us.
"We can say 'clearance' again... just not 'sale' (we say 'event') or 'coupon' (we say 'reward')," the employee explained. "Funny how the customer knows this but it seems like no one nowadays knows it in Plano. Then, when they do a coupon or sale and it was a success, they all congratulate everyone on a great idea — it's not a new concept!"
The "fair and square" strategy was meant to simplify things for JCPenney customers, limiting sales to month-long price cuts on certain items.
The retailer has relapsed a few times, bringing back the word "clearance" and having some sales events like a slew of discounts for July 4th last year.
"It's funny how things come full circle," a JCPenney exec told us. "The customers voted that they want the old JCP back."
JCPenney locations will re-signing their entire stores with empty sign holders for now. The signs are arriving on Monday and they have to be up before the event on February 1, a source told us.
We've reached out to JCPenney for comment and will update this post with its response.
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