jcpenney
Latest
JCPenney joins the modern age and adopts Apple Pay
The list of stores and merchants that accept Apple Pay seems to be growing on a daily basis, and now there's one more to add to the list. JCPenney's store credit card will now work with Apple Pay, and the department store will now accept Apple Pay at all of its locations. Additionally, users of JCPenney's app will also have an Apple Pay option when shopping on their iPhone or iPad.
PayPal lines up 15 retailers for mobile payments, will let you buy Jamba Juice smoothies with a smartphone
Although PayPal's mobile payment system started out small with a Home Depot deal, that snowball is quickly rolling itself into a boulder. Starting next month, 15 extra US retailers will be happy to see you slap down your smartphone (not literally, we hope) instead of a credit card. The selection leads us to think a lot of smartphone owners like to shop for wearables -- Aéropostale, Foot Locker and JC Penney are in the batch, along with others -- but there's a few useful exceptions, like Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice and TigerDirect. At least a total of 20 merchants are expected by the end of year, and as with Home Depot, you won't need special hardware besides an Android or iOS device to spend your hard-earned cash. We'll just be thankful we won't have to buy our yogurt with actual cash, like savages.
Ron Johnson, former Apple retail chief, rebuilding Apple staff at JC Penney
Ron Johnson left Apple as head of retail at the beginning of this month to run J.C. Penney, and apparently he's wasting no time rebuilding an Apple-style shop over there. The Wall Street Journal reports that he's aiming to bring both former Apple executives Daniel Walker and Michael Kramer on the staff there, essentially recreating part of the group that ran Apple from the year 2000 to 2005. Walker actually brought Johnson on at Apple, and it seems like the group is coming back together to do at the clothing retail company what they helped to do at Apple Inc. Of course, as Apple fans, we don't really have too much interest in the inner workings of J.C. Penney or what they're trying to do with that company. But it is interesting to think that the principles and ideas that Apple has come up with in its incredibly successful retail program are now floating out to other retail chains and industries. Going to an Apple Store is a pretty singular experience, but what if it wasn't? I'm interested to see a clothing store like J.C. Penney that's put a few of Apple retail's ideas and bits of thinking into play.
Apple retail chief Ron Johnson officially departs
Ron Johnson, Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail Operations for the last 11 years, has officially left Apple today. Back in June, Apple said that Johnson would be leaving the company on November 1st to become the CEO of J.C. Penney. Johnson joined Apple in 2000 and is largely credited with helping Apple gain a distinct retail presence. Among his contributions to Apple retail stores was the Genius Bar, which is now found in every Apple store and something Steve Jobs was initially against. Interestingly, Apple hasn't yet found a replacement for Johnson. In August the Cupertino company hired the recruiting firm Egon Zehnder International with Steve Jobs's order to find an international replacement for Johnson. As I wrote then: Apple has repeatedly said that their international expansion is a driving force in both their profits and sales. Given that China, a country which Apple had virtually no presence in until very recently, seems key to Apple's growth, its likely that Ron Johnson's replacement could very well come from the Asia Pacific territory or someone with extensive knowledge and experience in the territory. Ron Johnson's name, picture, and bio have already been removed from Executive Profiles page.
Apple retail chief Ron Johnson takes his empire-building genius to J.C. Penney
You may not know the name Ron Johnson, but you're definitely familiar with his work -- this is the man who built Apple's retail empire. Eleven years ago Jobs brought Johnson on to create the first Apple store, stealing him away from his position at Target. Now the man who brought you the Genius Bar and roaming, iPhone-wielding sales reps is moving on, and taking his expertise to the department store stalwart J.C. Penney. A spokesperson for the Cupertino crew told All Things D that the company was already searching for his replacement, but we're more interested in what Johnson will be doing with the shopping mall staple when he takes over as CEO on November 1st. We can only imagine that iPad-based virtual fitting rooms and desks of Jean-iuses will be helping you pick out your next pair of Levis. PR after the break.
NYT uncovers the tawdry, seedy tale of the SEO games of J.C. Penney
The New York Times has run an incredibly detailed piece about a feat of Google search engine gaming which seems to have been done by or for JC Penney. We won't bore you with SEO basics -- we're pretty sure you've got those down already -- but suffice to say that The Times noticed that the retailer was at the top of Google's search results for many more terms than seemed possible or natural, so they started to do some digging. What they found was that thousands of links had been placed on what were essentially spam sites all over the web, resulting in the retailer ruling the Google juice for terms such as "little black dress," and even super generic ones like "rugs" and "bedding." This is one of the dreaded kinds of 'black hat' optimization that Google frowns upon, because it's so obviously cheating, and it's punishable by a massive sinking of the offending site's ranking in results (which is, of course, not the desired effect). JC Penney unsurprisingly denies knowing anything about it, and no evidence exists to suggest it was directly involved, so on Wednesday, Google began 'corrective action' to bring Penney's results back to planet earth. One example -- before the action was taken, JC Penney held the number one spot for the search term 'living room furniture,' and after it stood at number 68 -- is enough to show the awesome power Google holds over the results it delivers, but the story also serves to show how truly broken search is, as well as Google's seeming nonchalance about the issue. Hit up the source link for the full story.
Item-level RFIDs get support from big retailers, track your every purchase
Toilets, cows, and Germans have all been tagged by RFIDs, but according to a new study, it's footwear and fashion that top the demand for radio-enabled tracking. In a report released yesterday, ABI Research said more than three-quarters of a billion RFID tags will be used in global apparel markets in 2011, with retailers like Walmart, Macy's, and JC Penney leading the way. Item-level tracking isn't new -- in fact we saw something similar in 2006 -- but with the likes of Walmart on board, the system is expected to grow as much as 60 percent in the next three years. The study suggests inventory and security as driving factors in the adoption of RFIDs, but we've got our suspicions. And anyway, we don't want anyone to know how much we spent on that Material Girl leopard print shrug -- not even a machine.
Fake iPhones at JC Penney let you text away your dignity
There's little to say about these "iPhones" except that they are obviously NOT iPhones. Instead, you can "message a friend up to 50 feet away" for those times when 50 feet is too far to walk or shout. Other features on this texting device include "touch screen technology" and a calculator. Pretty awesome, eh? All on sale at just $29.99 from J.C. Penney, America's top retailer of fake Chinese Apple products (just kidding, they sell pants there too). Batteries not included. If you want to see a pic of a very similar fake iPhone in my personal collection, one that makes phone calls on a land line, check the next page. If you want to see a bunch of fake Apple products from Engadget, check out the highly entertaining KiRF series here. Thanks to tipster Aaron M.
