JCPenney

I don't always do a lot of shopping at one time. When I go shopping, I have a few specific things I need to get and I usually try to go to the closest store, where I can get everything I need. From time to time, I need to get things that aren't available everywhere. Like today, I had to go to JCPenney because I have to get tall shirts, being that I am 6'1". I don't always like driving out to the Wolfchase Mall since I live downtown, but I needed to go out there to get clothes so I sucked it up and went.


In the past, when my mom and I have ventured out to JCPenney, she would always ask me if I wanted multiple kinds of the same thing, like jeans or a certain style of shirt, because of the sales the store would always have. Deals like buy one, get one half off were common in the big and tall section. So we would get jeans or shirts, multiple at a time. I always thought we were spending way too much money on clothes until I got up to the counter and saw the discounts added. The discounts would normally take anywhere between 60 and 80% off, and I was amazed.

However, today when I ventured into the same store that I have visited so often, I found those deals had disappeared. JCPenney normally has signs using their generic fonts and lingo to get you to shop, but since the last time I had been there (around November) things were drastically different. The entire store was covered in new advertising that mimicked (maybe even copied) Target and their simplicity of "Expect More, Pay Less" motto. Gone were the signs that begged me to save 60% when I buy two. In their place, stood signs that simply said a price, nothing more. These prices were much more than what I remember paying with my mom on those shopping trips. Instead of paying $35 for one pair of jeans and getting a second for $17.50 for a total of $52.50, one pair of jeans was $35 each, no discount.

Curious, I asked the attendant at the desk when I went to check out. She simply said, "We got a new CEO." Interesting, and not uncommon, either. The CEO changed, and so did the discounts. The message to the customer had always been "Buy more and you'll save." Now, the message to the customer was "Buy, you're always saving here."

What changed? Maybe the CEO of the company thought that the company was losing too much money to justify those sales anymore. Or, maybe the CEO wants to change the marketing of his company to be a trusted place that people imagine they're always saving, instead of getting a deal on something. But they're not fooling people like my mom and I. We can already recognize the change and aren't happy with not getting discounts any longer. I asked my mom if she was still getting the coupons that the company would always send out to save even more, and she said no. All of this change just to make more money. I would like to think that customers would be more savvy, like my mom and I, but it's likely that the general public will continue to shop there, falling for the gimmick that they are "always saving" with such a "trusted brand".

I'm not writing this for people to stop shopping at JCPenney. I probably will still shop there because there's clothes there that I can wear! But it's something to think about. How are we letting advertising (or maybe even false advertising) convince us to buy? And are we using that money in the best way to gain the most for our money? Just a thought.