Is JC Penney's Re-Invention Like Brian Wilson's SMiLE?

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/28/is-jc-penneys-re-invention-like-brian-wilsons-smile/

[runnersdialzero]

With all my recent "Maybe I should stay away from the internet completely for a long while" thoughts, I'm taking this as a sign.

[ivy]

When this was posted on Brian's Facebook earlier, I read the title and thought to myself "That sounds like a dumb, stretched association that does not need to happen."

Now that I have read it I think it is the laziest piece of crap article that I've ever read in my life.

[rab2591]

With all my recent "Maybe I should stay away from the internet completely for a long while" thoughts, I'm taking this as a sign.

I kinda had the same thought.

I can't believe the Brian Wilson Facebook page even posted this.

[send me a picture and i'll tell you]

The author or editor knew enough to write it as SMiLE, though.
 

[KittyKat]

JC Penney is being run into the ground.   People are losing their jobs  left and right in those stores and it will probably go out of business.  The people currently running and ruining it will make tens of millions in "golden parachutes" and Americans will have one less reasonably priced place to shop.  How that can be compared to Smile I don't know.  I didn't even click on the link because what's happening to JC Penney makes me sad.  I hardly ever went there but I grew up with that store.  

[Aegir]

I read that article about three times but it still doesn't make any sense to me why they would compare it to Smile (and if you're a true fan you spell it like "Smile", see my signature)

[Wah Wah Wah Ooooo]

Terrible article. I think the author is just trying to be hip by talking about Pet Sounds and SMiLE...other than that, the comparison is pretty weak.

[pixletwin]

I lost interest at "JC Penney".

[guitarfool2002]

Smile and Brian aside, JC Penney bought into the false, absolutely f***ed-up notion that anything or anyone connected to "Apple" was magic, and grabbing a piece of that magic would therefore guarantee success.

So they hired a new guru who had worked with the great Apple, and he proceeded to make changes that were based on the notion that consumers were not looking for bargains or seeking out sales, but would rather be comforted by knowing their local JC Penney stores have the same low prices all the time, whenever they're ready to buy.

This ignores completely the habits of too many consumers during a shaky economy and who are seeing their cost of living increase by the week on everything from food essentials, to fuel costs, to clothing, to whatever else. People look for sales and bargains, that feeling that you are in fact saving a few dollars and cents buying at a store having a sale on the product you want versus another store whose prices are higher that week.

Sales get people in the door - period. Families clip and use coupons - period.

Just because Apple can repeatedly release the same fucking phone or device with minor tweaks, and convince their loyal audience of consumers that they somehow "need" this latest upgrade or update in order to survive, and get a street-level buzz happening outside Apple Store locations where various 20-something college students pitch tents and queue outside the shop's door overnight waiting for the store to open (covered dutifully and faithfully by our fearless media, of course...) does not mean that is the nature of people who have shopped or who may choose to shop for something at Penney's locations.

And yet this Apple guy is getting wads of money, golden handshakes out the wazoo, getting a lot of buzz again more as a hangover of his "Apple" cred than anything he's done with or for JC Penney, and I fear that this "no sale" hip, trendy strategy to Apple-ize a department store is in fact going to spell doom.

I'm off my soapbox...I had to chime in because I have been following with a lot of anger and sadness the saga of Penney's since the new leadership from Apple took over. I hate to see Penney's go, more for what it is and was at this point than how much of my money goes there, although I still shop there when necessary.

If we really wanted to contextualize the JC Penney's saga in terms of the Beach Boys, I'd say the decision to eliminate sales and sale items in favor of an Apple fixed-pricing based strategy would be comparable to deciding it would be a great idea and a boost for the band's fortunes to fund and embark on a tour with the Maharishi in 1968.

[KittyKat]

I finally read that article on Forbes.com.  It's offensive to compare Brian Wilson to some overpaid CEO who doesn't care who he hurts as long as his narcissistic plan to remake Penney's garners him a lot of press and he can walk away from the ruins of a failed retail chain with a multi-million dollar payday.  He ran the Apple stores, but he only brought over their strategy of no discounts (which really only works with the Apple customer base who will pay anything for their tech, though I'm not sure even they are willing to pay anything for clothing and household items), but he failed to realize that Apple stores succeed partly on their reputation for hovering customer service.  The Apple clerks and "geniuses" not only are famed for being helpful, they even break out into scripted applause of you buy their expensive items.  Contrast that with his plan for Penney's, where not only are people forced to pay higher prices, they are now going to be expected to buy and bag their own items like a self-service grocery store when a self-checkout system rolls out in the next year or two.  More clerks will be fired and I have to think they will have even more shoplifting and store losses with that type of system. Nice way to go (not), Ron Johnson, but according to the writer at Forbes, you're just a misunderstood genius like Brian Wilson.  Here's a link to an article about Ron's newest Penney's plans:

http://www.retaildoc.com/blog/what-jc-penney-management-forgot-about-in-their-turnaround-plans/

[Rocky Raccoon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSgZYUnQn0