J.C. Penney stores revamp pricing and sales policies

Waterford - J.C. Penney Co., which has been one of the anchor stores at the Crystal Mall since it opened 27 years ago, introduced a new fair and square pricing system Wednesday that is intended to reduce confusion surrounding the hundreds of sales and coupons the 110-year-old retailer once promoted.

Now, shoppers at the department store will have only three options: everyday prices, monthlong values and best prices (one-time specials posted on the first and third Friday of every month). The new system is intended to give customers a low price from the start, rather than having the store mark up items and then promote huge sales.

"We are trying to restore some of the integrity to our pricing," said the Crystal Mall store's training and department supervisor Alicia Jackson. "We want people to know what to expect."

The revamped pricing system comes with a new J.C. Penney logo, fewer signs, less cluttered stores, monthly themes and a new return policy that allows any item to be returned with no time limit at any outlet with no questions asked.

Gone will be the early-bird specials, the confusing markdowns and the endless coupons through the mail. Displays will be changed only once a month rather than on a seemingly continuous basis, and there will be less merchandise on the floor.

New company chief executive Ron Johnson has decreed that J.C. Penney is going back to American retailing principles of honest pricing, right down to the flat numbers - $12 rather than $12.99 - on the clothes racks.

Waterford manager Krisztina Kerti said the 1,100 J.C. Penney outlets nationwide also will eventually be creating stores within their stores, where branded merchandise such as Arizona jeans and Liz Claiborne attire will have their own niches.

She added that the new retailing policies will reduce marketing costs for the company, and the savings in turn will be passed onto customers. The Waterford store, which employs about 100 mostly part-time workers, cut some positions as a result of the changes but then hired in other departments, Kerti said, so there was no net effect on employment.

Customers at the Waterford Mall store Wednesday said they were already aware of the new retail philosophy at J.C. Penney, thanks largely to a controversial television advertisement showing a series of screaming women that has been running widely for the past couple weeks.

"There seems to be less stuff in the store," said Diane Allyn of Oakdale.

Debbie Laughlin of New London added that she doesn't usually respond to advertising, but wanted to check out the new pricing policy once she heard about it on television.

"The theory sounds good," she said.

l.howard@theday.com