J.C. Penney’s cash flow tells a sad story

Marketwatch ^ | 11/12/12 | Matt Andrejczak

[jimbo123]

J.C. Penney shares were the biggest S&P 500 percentage decliner Monday, tumbling 11% to $18.41 in afternoon trades as investors seem to be growing impatient with the company’s roughly year-old transform plan.

[martin_fierro]

[Paladin2]

Well, I hope they are happy now.

[Rashputin]

Target’s next and suspect they’re going to go down the same drain just any time.

[BereanBrain]

I sent JC Penny an email about their anti-family advertising and policies.

I basically got the “screw up and the horse you rode in on, we don’ need your business” email reply.

How can a company be so stupid as to offend the people who buy 90% of the stuff (i.e. the rest of us)?

[Oatka]

. . . gay-themed advertising drives away customers in that middle class market. JCP is circling the metaphorical drain and frankly, won’t be missed by many shoppers.

Aye, there's the rub. In the highly-competitive field of retailing, there's far too many competitors. Once you tick off your long-term customers, they just go somewhere else and never come back no matter how you try, once again, to restructure.

There are quite a few places that have done that to me, and after a while, when something is needed, they never come to mind.

[jonrick46]

My Grandfather, a close friend of J.C. Penney, is rolling in his grave.

[BereanBrain]

Here’s the EXACT EMAIL and reply I got from JCP.
Note the reply is first, followed by a copy of my original email.

---

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on our Ellen commercials and partnership!

As we focus on being in sync with the rhythm of our customers’ lives and operating in a ‘Fair and Square’ manner that is rooted in integrity, simplicity and respect, we couldn’t think of a better person than Ellen DeGeneres. We are extremely proud to have her on our team.

Original Message Follows: ————————————

Form Message

Subject: General Inquiries
Topic: advertising
Comments: Over the years, my family has spent many thousands of dollars at JC Penny. Due to your support for anti-family ELLEN, we will no longer be shopping at JC PENNY. You might try having someone who represents families rather than destroys them as a spokesperson.
Email Address: (removed by user)

[RoseofTexas]

Not only gay support, BUT the store around my house has an employee who is allowed to wear her Islamic headgear which to many costumers is offensive and tacky around the store floor!! This store is located near a military base. I dropped them like a hot potato around a year ago and haven't done business with them since than!! In our very own soil..Tolerance for the muslim community and intolerance for the christian American community. I'm sure store policy in a muslim neighborhood would not allow a Christian sales person to wear a huge cross or clothing with scripture on the floor...I guarantee you!!

[fr_freak]

I know a lot of people have seen the video interview of the Russian KGB defector (Yuri something, made in the mid-1980s, I believe - it's on Youtube) who talked about the Soviets' standard psy-ops campaign for de-stabilizing entire countries. The campaign consisted, essentially, of inundating the country with propaganda that essentially trashed all of that country's cultural foundations and cultural icons so that the populace becomes "demoralized", which is to say that they have lost complete faith in their own culture, and instead cling to the new cultural icons that are invented to replace it (an example would be someone like Janeane Garafolo, who said she wanted to spit when she saw the US flag, but was choked with pride at a gay parade). A main point that o' Yuri made was that once the people were successfully demoralized, it was nearly impossible for them to make rational decisions based on hard evidence because the propaganda was so ingrained that it colored every aspect of their thinking. An example might be how many lefties are incapable of seeing members of certain minority groups as ever being criminal or evil - if one of them misbehaves, it is only because he was oppressed, discriminated against, etc.

Well, the reason I bring this up is because when I see a company like JCPenney engage in this pro-gay campaign at the expense of their own economic viability, I can't help but wonder if this is the result of their "demoralization". Even while they are going bankrupt, they CANNOT believe that it could be because they alienated regular Americans with their pro-gay stance, because in their minds, EVERYONE is pro-gay, only the bad fringe extremists disapprove of gay dads and whatnot. Even while their stocks plunge and sales dive, they cannot see the true cause because it goes against their programming. It is the only thing that explains their financial suicide. Even incompetence doesn't explain it.

I see this also with your average Democrat voter. They literally believe that EVERY SINGLE THING bad that happens in this country is because of Republicans/conservatives. In fact, what I see is that the very action of doing something corrupt, in their minds, automatically equates to "conservative". They cannot see the corruption of the Democrats, because Democrats are ALWAYS the good guys, so if a Democrat does something bad or fails, it must be the fault of a Republican somewhere, a sort of universal "Bush's fault" mode of thinking.

JCPenney's will most likely die, but they will blame it on Republicans/conservatives even as the last window is shuttered.

[pepsi_junkie]

Reading this article and the link within it gave me some new insight into their master plan. Sure, we all see the “no sales” and “all gay, all the time” stuff but that’s just marketing stuff. The real plan to a fundamental change from traditional department store to a collection of small brand-name shops all under one roof with a central cafe. The problem I have with this idea is that we have it already, it’s called the shopping mall. Why do I need JC Penny to recreate it on a smaller scale? I fail to see what the draw is.

[Ted Grant]

I thought that was Target wit the salvation army situation.

[Ted Grant]

I just use them for their bathrooms. It’s probably the nicest public bathroom in Herald Square nyc.

[Pollster1]

I used to purchase a significant fraction of my clothing at Penney’s. Once that junk mail came to home, I stopped even looking at their prices. I’m overdue for new clothes, but they won’t come from that establishment.

[concerned about politics]

My Grandfather, a close friend of J.C. Penney, is rolling in his grave.

Imagine what Walt Disney must be doing in his coffin. His goal was to make kids happy. Now, it's to get kids naked.

[Rummyfan]

Whom in their right mind would think that is the best spokesman for your company?

[Donkey Odious]

Wranglers - the official State jeans of Texas...well, at least they should be. I wore Levi’s for years until they started giving their $$ to a plethora of left-wing causes. No more Levi’s for me, thank you.

[GeronL]

BUMP!!

[Tax-chick]

Or wear a dress instead of jeans.

[Carriage Hill]

I like the music; I can do without the lyrics.

[RnMomof7]

not sad..they went fora niche market.. 2% of the population ..not enough to keep them afloat