So I Walked In To A Fast Food Place...and???

[tblue37]

53. JC Penney's is failing badly for this very reason.

Decades ago it used to be a store where one could find decent clothing at a reasonable price, but not any longer. But it's even worse than that. I needed to get some casual T-shirts the other evening, and I have always liked Penney's T-shirts, so I went there for the first time in a couple of years.

I am in my 60s and heavy, so I don't buy anything without trying it on first. But when I went to the dressing room, there was a a sign saying it was closed for the evening--even though the store would not close for 3 and a half hours yet.

Then I went to another dressing room, and it was closed for the evening, too. I finally found a dressing room sort of open on the other side of the store--in the lingerie department--but most of it was also closed off with a rope and a sign, and only one changing room was open! There were four women ahead of me in line to use that one room, so I just left the T-shirts on the counter and walked out.

They had closed all the dressing rooms because they didn't have enough people staffing the store to watch the dressing rooms. They also didn't have anyone manning any of the cash registers I saw, which is also a pain in the neck when you want to pay for something and get home within a reasonable amount of time.

They say they can't staff the stores because they aren't making enough profit, but when their potential customers cannot find what they need, can't find a worker to help them, can't find a dressing room to try on clothes, can't find a cashier to take their money, then they lose all those sales, and that cuts their profits. It is made even worse by the fact that a skimpy staff can't keep the store in decent order, so it looks like crap, too, with the clothing all thrown about on shelves, on racks, and in dressing rooms, because no one is there to refold things, to hang them in their proper places, or to collect items from the dressing rooms to restore to the racks. This does not create a pleasant shopping experience for their customers.

I keep seeing articles about how Walmart's profits are also way down for that same reason. Skimpy staff can't keep the stores stocked, so people can't find what they come into the store to buy. And there are such long lines at the few open registers that some people just give up and walk out, leaving behind the items they had intended to buy.