What I have to say about JC Penny's<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yes, I'm again following the strategy of "comment on another blogger's post, then link to your own post on the topic." Megan McArdle is talking\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/08\/what-i-have-to-say-about-jc-pennys.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I have to say about JC Penny's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yes, I'm again following the strategy of "comment on another blogger's post, then link to your own post on the topic." 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{"id":890,"date":"2013-08-22T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/08\/what-i-have-to-say-about-jc-pennys.html"},"modified":"2013-08-22T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-22T21:52:00","slug":"what-i-have-to-say-about-jc-pennys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2013\/08\/what-i-have-to-say-about-jc-pennys.html","title":{"rendered":"What I have to say about JC Penny’s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I remember Penny\u2019s from when I was a kid.\u00a0 Mom would order out of the catalog, and we would go to Penny\u2019s to pick it up.\u00a0 That freestanding store doesn\u2019t exist any longer, nor does the world of ordering out of the catalog to pick up.\u00a0 (I don\u2019t remember what she would buy out of the catalog, really \u2014 did she buy clothes for us or herself?\u00a0 Linens?)\u00a0 We were a frugal household at the time (key line from my childhood:\u00a0 \u201cOther families go to Disneyland, but we are responsible and\u00a0save<\/em> our money instead\u201d \u2014 mom and dad had better have a hefty 401(k) after all those missed chances to meet Micky!).\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Now we\u2019re more likely to go there to get basics for the kids \u2014 school clothes (uniforms \u2014 light blue polos and navy blue pants) which they stock in a good wrinkle free version and\u00a0whatever weekend wear I can\u2019t pick up at Meijers (local Target-equivalent).\u00a0 I was so pleased when they went to an \u201ceveryday low prices\u201d format, so that I didn\u2019t have to worry about whether their \u201cuniform\u201d section was on sale or not, and I haven\u2019t been back since they abandoned that, so I don\u2019t know what their pricing looks like now.\u00a0 But I was really, really disappointed when it didn\u2019t work.\u00a0 (I am still curious as to, when they abandoned this pricing strategy, they had one really late night marking up their merchandise by 50% in order to mark\u00a0it down.)<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t stand the approach of overpricing and then putting things on sale.\u00a0 To a moderate degree, I\u2019m fine with it, but not the Kohl\u2019s approach of putting half the store on a 50% off clearance, and, if the collection you\u2019re interested in isn\u2019t in the rotation when you\u2019re there, tough luck \u2014 you know better than to buy something that\u2019s clearly overpriced if it\u2019s at \u201cfull price.\u201d\u00a0 It took us forever to settle on a new couch because I didn\u2019t trust the \u201c50% off\u201d Lay-z-boy offerings and the upscale stores were too far out of our price range (finally settled on a local store with middle-ground offerings).\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe my two years in Germany spoiled me \u2014 sure, there were sales, but they were 25% off, not 50% off.<\/p>\n

And this game of Sale! Sale! Sale! makes me all the more reluctant to buy because I\u2019m skeptical of the quality of the clothing that they sell at these prices \u2014 the fabric seems to be thinner, the sweaters pill easily, the quality finishes aren\u2019t there.\u00a0 (This seems especially the case at Target \u2014 though I don\u2019t like to shop there anyway, ever since my first encounter with a stocker who didn\u2019t speak English, and the big \u201cnow hiring\u201d signs in Spanish irritate me greatly.)\u00a0 Yet I\u2019m just not confident enough in more upscale clothing being higher quality rather than just higher status.\u00a0 So in the meantime, I tell myself that I\u2019ll frequent the resale shops until I lose that after-40 10 pounds!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"