<p>I went to JC Penny last night to pick up a new shower curtain and towels for my MIL who just moved into assisted living. With nothing on sale, I found the experience confusing. I guess my brain is wired to look for sales. Even though they claim that everything is at “an everyday low price”, psychologically I felt ripped off!</p>
<p>Haven’t been to a JCP in a while so I’m not up to date on their current marketing strategy. Reading the posts, though, it seems like they are going with the Trader Joe’s model. One price which stays the same unless something requires an up or down adjustment. I hate those coupon/club card/loyalty program gimmicks. It is so much more relaxing to shop at TJ’s, or Costco, esp. since Costco doesn’t require you to actually show those coupons you get in the mail - they are automatically processed. Maybe JCP is just ahead of the curve in bringing this idea to the clothing/household products arena. May just have to stop by there again.</p>
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<p>That’s why I was very loyal to JC Penney. Because I was always the person who had the coupons, the rewards certificates, the sneak preview sale circular, etc. The cashiers even seemed to enjoy the game, to the extent of being willing to ring things up in separate transactions in order to let customers take advantage of more than one coupon. </p>
<p>I once heard a snippet of a radio commercial–I can’t even remember what it was for–but the person was saying, “if you get a good deal, it’s like you won, and if you don’t, it’s like you lost.” As insane as this sounds, that resonated with me strongly. There is something irrationally rewarding to me about getting a good deal on something. And I generally was very satisfied with the merchandise I got and the price I paid for it. I’m thinking I’m going to feel less satisfied if it doesn’t come with that sense of accomplishment of having gotten a good deal.</p>
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<p>Really!??? Now I feel like a fool, carefully ripping them out and bringing them with me.</p>
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<p>They should change the name to “Nickels and Dimes” and be done with it.</p>
<p>Actually at our Costco they do require you to tear out unless you are willing to just surrender and turn in the whole booklet at that time. Otherwise people could take advantage of the deals multiple times.</p>
<p>At our Costco, they only require you to give them one coupon from your booklet - any one coupon will do. All the others are automatically taken care of.</p>
<p>Total rebranding and ginormous pricing paradigm shift, how exciting! </p>
<p>Kohls and Macys have completely alienated me with the coupons and perpetual sales. Just begs the question: “how much was the markup?”</p>
<p>Target’s top marketing guy went to JCP about 6 months ago. Target is very worried about the “new JCP.” I agree the ads are annoying, but here we are talking about them. This Target spouse may have to do some stealth shopping at JCP.</p>
<p>If you use self-check out at Costco, you can keep the coupon. And there is the same number bar code on every coupon, so you can buy the item many times even you do not use the exact coupon for it.</p>
<p>I’m a Target fan as well but I may have to check out the nearest JCP. My problem is the same as some of the above posters, I love the feeling that I got a deal! If it is a really good deal on something I needed, my favorite saying is “I didn’t spend money, I saved it.” Ridiculous but there it is.</p>
<p>At our Costco a single coupon must be scanned. This triggers all current sale items to ring up at the sale price. The last time I was at Costco I forgot my booklet and asked the cashier if he had a spare. He scanned one that he was keeping at the register. </p>
<p>There are limits for some sale items. I would think that, since each sale is linked to a member account, you wouldn’t be able to purchase more than the allotted number at the sale price, even on subsequent days, but I’ve never tried it so I may be wrong. </p>
<p>I still haven’t seen (heard?) the JCP commercial. Fortunately.</p>
<p>Well obvious.y Costco varies the coupon policy from store to store!</p>
<p>Back to JCP, if anyone goes there this week, be sure to report back - ill be curious about if the merchandise looks the same (as it stands now, I’m not such a fan), the # of people shopping and I’ll be REAL curious how busy they are on the first and thirs Fridays of the month!</p>
<p>I was there today… not sure if the changes are in effect yet but I did get a nice sweater for work for $4. I was never a jcp shopper, I do most of my shopping at kohls, but I am finding that jcp has much better affordable work options. I love east 5th and worthington.</p>
<p>I’ve been out of the country for a while so haven’t been to a JCP since Xmas 2010. I was shocked when I went in though. It had been somewhat remodeled and had such a cheap and empty look, similar to what Sears had become in recent years. Used to be more like Macy’s. Is it still that way?
I’ll be back in the US soon. Would love to buy things when it’s convenient for me!</p>
<p>We don’t need to use the coupons at our Costco - they automatically give the sale prices. The checkout person said we can get the sale price on other days if we come back while the sale is on - but it’s too far to try that one out.</p>
<p>I was in JCP (see? it worked! after calling it Penney’s my whole life I’ve already adjusted to the texting-style abbreviation after seeing 3 commercials!) yesterday and had two thoughts: the lower prices were not quite low enough, especially in the shoe department and the price tags are ridiculously tiny! The price is printed at the bottom of the regular sized pricetag on a very small rectangle of color. I saw red tags and blue tags. I had no idea if a sweater was 30, 60 or 80. I do NOT want to pull out my reading glasses to see the price on a tag. But - I agree with Em - East 5th and Worthington have nice work clothes and the new prices seemed ok to me.</p>
<p>I’m going to boycott JCP in protest of the awful commercials they’ve been airing recently. These are the commercials with a bunch of idiots screaming their heads off one after the other as an assault to my ears. This isn’t something I want to hear as an interrupt to whatever show I’m watching. I can’t believe that firstly the ad company came up with such an annoying commercial and that secondly some JCP execs viewed it and said “yes, that’s a nice commercial - a great investment of our advertising dollars”.</p>
<p>Fortunately I’m quick with the mute button but I refuse to buy at JCP until these idiotic commercials are gone.</p>
<p>I really don’t care about coupons one way or the other anyway so they don’t get any of my business through that enticement. A quick compare of JCP, Sears, and Macys will show who has the best price and I’ll just buy at the one with the best price since they all have about the same stuff and they’re all at the same mall.</p>
<p>I hate the commercials and thought the same thing - how did jcp think it was smart to be associated with obnoxious screaming?</p>
<p>Although I agree that these commercials are annoying, they have certainly gotten people talking. Even my 10 yo asked me, “Mom, what’s happening at JC Penneys on Feb 1?”</p>
<p>^^ I’ve never gotten through their annoying commercials far enough to hear anything about a Feb 1, I’ve hit mute by then, so not only are the commercials extremely annoying, they’re not very effective either.</p>
<p>I hate the idea of positively rewarding a company for having the most annoying, obnoxious commercials on TV simply in an attempt to get attention thinking that’ll get their message across and I’ll go hand them my money. Hopefully there’ll be some others like me who’ll avoid buying anything at JCP as long as they have these awful commercials on TV.</p>
<p>Sounds like their commercials got everyone’s attention, which was probably the point. Certainly got all of us talking. :)</p>
<p>I also got a ‘catalog’ in the mail. Maybe it is actually cheaper than all the flyers, sale ads, etc. I have always shopped at JcPenney. We don’t have a Macy’s in Des Moines. There is one in Kansas City but I never shop in KC. I don’t like Dilliards or Younkers but I do occasionally shop at Kohls. I can only imagine they’re as busy on those special Fridays as they are during their ‘one day only’ sales.</p>