Brand Demise

Recently 24/7 Wall St. has predicted ten brands that will disappear in 2014.  Reading the list, some make sense.  Martha Stewart Living Magazine - Really, Martha, who has time or resources to raise their own speciality chickens, grow various plants for natural dyes to make the most fabulous Easter eggs for the holidays?  The exhausted public just goes to Wal-Mart and grabs a box of PAAS and goes on with their day.  Few of us have the ability to hire staff to look after our prize chickens.

Nook - Makes sense, tablets are overtaking e-readers as they offer much more functionality.  Amazon and Apple are taking over this market.  I for one am a convert to a tablet.  Much more convenient than a laptop and am a complete application junkie.  When they get an app that can make me breakfast, I'll be in heaven.

There were others but the one that stood out to me was J.C. Penney which saddens but doesn't surprise me.  As a lifelong customer of Penney's, I was disappointed when they went to the new pricing scheme.  Penneys is not Apple.  The store does not possess a product unique to them so trying to give it that feel, backfired.  The monthly glossy book like catalogues advertising their deals did not entice me even when they color-coordinated the pages.  I was flipping through it looking for the coupons that I loved so much.  After two months, the advertisements went into the recycling without so much as a peek from me.  It is no surprise that Penney's losses are in the billions.  I haven't shopped there but twice since they changed.

Before they started redoing the store interiors to appear more trendy and posh such as hanging black chandeliers over certain women's fashions as if the set of Twilight had just been brought forth, the store was always teeming with customers.  It was a challenge to find a register without a line (I figured out that one back in women's intimates usually was the best bet).  I did almost all my shopping for clothes and household items at this very store.  Now admist the bright lights and the new makeup counters with their gleaming white marble floors, it's a ghost town.  No one is in Penney's.  Oh and why did they turn up the heat in every Penney's I've been into in the last year?  Are they trying to save on A/C or is that some other type of gimmick that they figure will entice you to buy what?  Fans?

Penney's offered lower-middle income families affordable products that were of better quality than the massive retailers.  We can't afford Macy's and their designers especially in this economy but we don't want to go to the other end of the spectrum and buy cheaply made clothes from a discount house that fall apart in a few months.  I'm cheap but I like good quality.  Penney's was the middle of the road for me.  Maybe the coupons and the sales didn't save me much more than the current pricing method (though I swear it did), but I perceived it as a big savings.  Wow, I save $125.32! as it used to say on the bottom of my receipt.  So now I go to Kohls which send me coupons almost every day and when I do, I pass the mall and look upon it wistfully, hoping against hope that the powers that be at my former favorite clothing store, finally wakes up and smells the coffee or the profit losses at least.

I for one hope they can save Penney's and put it back to rights.  Take down those looming black chandeliers and rip out the bright makeup counters.  If I wanted fancy, I'd head to Macy's or Elder Beerman but I just wanted practical.