Dive Brief:
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Former JCPenney CEO Ron Johnson lowered prices to levels that didn’t match the retailers’ traditional penchant for discounts, calling JCPenney’s higher-but-always-discounted retail prices “fake.”
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Returning CEO Mike Ullman is clearly taking the retailer back to its old ways, with prices on jewelry rising 40% to more than 200%, in anticipation of slashing those prices for Valentine’s Day.
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The price increases will also affect jeans, kitchen appliances, and other products, but not bedding or homegoods.
Dive Insight:
Call it being cruel to be kind. JCPenney is fighting its way back downmarket — raising prices in order to give its most loyal customers the deep discounts they crave. It definitely feels good to get a deal, to see stickers upon stickers denoting how many times the item you’re getting once cost more than what you’re paying for it. But let’s face it — it’s weird to be raising prices while other retailers are buckling under discount pressure.
Here’s the other thing: Fired CEO Ron Johnson was brought in to replace Mike Ullman in the first place, tasked with shaking things up because they weren’t so great. So once Ullman brings JCPenney back to where it was — discount stickers on higher prices and all — then what?
