Always Low Prices? J.C. Penney tries a play out of the Wal-Mart playbook

• 40% across-the-board price cuts over at J.C. Penney source

» Fewer sales, lower prices: A old retail vehicle tunes up. Department store mainstay (despite years of underperformance) J.C. Penney is making some big changes. New CEO Ron Johnson, who formerly headed Apple’s retail division, is looking to fix a pricing and sales structure that has neither kept J.C. Penney competitive, nor has helped their bottom line. Johnson’s desire to cut down on the volume of smaller, unique sales is sort of a no-brainer; he says despite the company’s prior 590 promotions per year, the average customer visited only four times, meaning “customers ignored us 99% of the time. At some point, you, as a brand, look desperate if you have to market that much.” Johnson cut that unique promotions number from 590 down to … 12. Wow.

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