Business Insider/Hayley Peterson
Some of JCPenney's stores are outdated and messy.
- JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau said last week that the company is failing to adequately deliver on some fundamentals of "good
retail ." - We visited two mall-based JCPenney stores in Richmond, Virginia, and found empty shelves, messy displays, and abandoned cash registers.
- Then we visited a third JCPenney located in a strip mall, and we were blown away by the flawless design, layout, and presentation.
JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau said last week that the department-store chain is failing to adequately deliver on some fundamentals of "good retail."
Soltau made the remarks on an earnings call in response to a question about what she's learned since taking the helm at JCPenney in October, just two weeks before the start of the critical holiday quarter, during which JCPenney's same-store sales fell 4%.
We recently visited two JCPenney stores in Richmond, Virginia, and saw empty shelves, messy displays, and abandoned cash registers. The stores, which both anchored enclosed shopping malls, felt outdated and far too large.
Then we visited a third JCPenney store located in a strip mall, and we were blown away by the flawless design, layout, and presentation: