The new David Bowie album brings to mind reinvention. Let's face it, that guy's incredible career has brought about more theatrical personalities than there are items at a warehouse-sized Las Vegas buffet. You can judge which of these worked best.
This reinvention is beginning to remind us of some of the older retailers out there. Right now, the one at top of mind right now is J.C. Penney.
We've seen a lot of changes at that retailer. It's latest move is to bring the great Canadian clothing brand Joe Fresh into a majority of its stores, and supposedly put it in competition with fast-fashion retailers such as H&M, Zara and Uniqlo.
This change comes after doing away with sales in its stores and then bringing them back at the beginning of the year. The still-relatively-new CEO Ron Johnson came over from the relatively sucessful Apple Stores, and big things were expected when he was brought on board.
But J.C. Penney had a very rough fourth quarter and overall fiscal year. Some people are saying Johnson might not be the right person for the job.
We think that bringing in the Joe brand is a good move for the retailer because we think the clothier makes a great product for the money. But J. C. Penney's problems seem to be more of an identity issue. Are they a discounter like Walmart or a mid-range department store like Macy's? Now they are getting into fast fashion.
Do you think the Joe move can turn things around for Penney, or does the retailer have some bigger problems on its hands?
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