Posted on 11/13/2012 3:34:59 AM PST by tobyhill
J.C. Penny Co. was hit with a downgrade at Credit Suisse as the retailer’s sales continue to slow.
Analyst Michael Exstein lowered his rating to underperform from neutral and cut his target price to US$15 from US$25 after the company reported its fifth straight quarterly loss on Friday.
Mr. Exstein noted that J.C. Penny’s cash position continues to dwindle and it is expected to generate only a minimal amount of EBITDA in 2012 and 2013. The company has already sold US$525-million in non-core assets this year.
“Time is no longer on J.C. Penny’s side, and going into the fourth quarter and beyond, we are concerned that J.C. Penny’s technological overhaul of both its back and front end systems could serve to create an even more challenging internal environment than is the case today,” the analyst told clients.
(Excerpt) Read more at business.financialpost.com ...
I paid off my credit card with them and don’t buy from them anymore. They have turned too PC.
Just hire a new CEO who doesn’t make it a point to alienate their customer base.
It’s too late for that. The current CEO bet the company on his Political agenda and it backfired.
If you take a stand for homosexuality; you have taken a stand against G-d. Good luck with that.
C’mon! White people were supposed to tag along and hope some of the coolness rubbed off. The damn racists didn’t come through.
Amazing! According to the article, the department store expects customers to readjust and adapt to them. Not the other way around.
Never, Never shop there.
Done with them a couple years ago. Not one Penny!
Aleinate the base. Where have I seen that strategy before?
Heather’s two Mommies better hustle over to JCP and buy more Spanx
Since they are pro-sodomy, maybe they can get a bailout.
I believe the name of the company is JC Penney.
I may be wrong.
Yeah...ours is a dirty rathole. Went in a couple weeks ago for a specialty item and was appalled at the condition of the store and the attitude of both staff and shoppers.
Great business model they decided on. Eschew the people with money and cater to those who do not have it. Force your beliefs down everyone’s throats then act all surprised when folks vote with their wallets.
Buh-bye...
The customer base is white middle class, middle aged, Americans whose incomes are declining due to globalization, real but unreported food and energy inflation, and increasing unemployment or underemployment. Plus the demographic wave is reducing rapidly their economic and political importance.
New management is trying unsuccessfully to reposition the store to attract new customers and is alienating its core customers with the new image and pricing strategy. Kohls, Target, Goodwill Stores, local consignment shops, and Walmart are embracing the traditional JCP customer seeking good value. New management is learning that once their core customer finds better options they don’t come back.
JCP has experienced several new turnaround CEO’s over the past 20 years. Each tried to modernize the image and product assortment to attract new customers. In the process of bringing in new merchandisers, buyers, and product development people to chase the new customers they exited the long term employees who understood how to serve the core customer. Now enough institutional knowledge has been lost that another CEO isn’t going to help. JCP will join Montgomery Wards, Woolworth’s, Circuit City and other formerly great retailers in the dustbin of history. The invisible hand of capitalism is at work.
When leadership of an organization begins to focus on new constituencies to the exclusion of its loyal core base the organization almost always loses momentum, vitality and appeal. It is rare when a new strategy delivers new customers more rapidly than it alienates the base. The rules of the retail marketplace apply also to the marketplace of ideas as the Republican establishment seems destined to learn. One truism in business — it is always easier to sell more to your existing customers than to find, attract, and sell new ones.
You are correct. The writer of this article and/or the editor really screwed up.
Barackoclaus America.
Their stupid idea of not having sales, has pushed them over the cliff.
Looks like it`s time for JCP to expand their targeted customer base to bestials and pedophiles.
My schadenfreude meter is wayyyy up on this one.
From your mouth, to the RNC’s ears.
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