JCPenney

i have to update this as majority of the staff in the home (curtains dept) look like they would rather jump out the window than be at work, and hey, i’ve been in that situation before. i’m fairly certain their jobs suck, and they’re there to pick up a paycheck and just keep it moving. BUT, some professionalism wouldn’t hurt. most of the women working here are older, i’d say past late 40’s. they’re constantly complaining out on the sales floor about their terrible job. which manager or co-​worker they dislike. and generally carrying around a very somber, irritated mood. some of them talk down to you as though you’re infantile when all you’re doing is asking a basic question. they’re quick to cut you off, very impatient, and often times cold. i know JC Penney is a wasteland nowadays so i’m sure these people have very little incentive to put more effort into their job but MY GOD, a little warmth and faking can go a long way…

Hats off to «Mike,» a guy who despite being shorthanded one busy Friday night, helped me negotiate a difficult exchange on a Christmas gift that had broken.
This kind of customer service is hard to find nowadays, and I was extremely pleased with the effort Mike put forth.
Long story short, Give this man a raise! This is the kind of department store employee we need to see more of.

I got lenses from here about 14 months ago. Even though I declined the anti-​reflective coating option there is some sort of coating on the lenses which is starting to come off in patches, make the glasses unusable. I thought that I was being smart by reusing old frames and buying top of the line lenses, but it wasn’t. I can’t believe how fast these lenses’ coating started to come off despite taking good care of them.
And, just to add insult to injury, they won’t release your Pupilary Distance so you can’t get a cheap replacement online as a hold-​over until your medical vision benefit refills.

Went there with the idea of buying two pairs of Levis 505 jeans at «buy one get one for half price». Customer service rep found me sized that I needed and I tried them on, and I had almost decided to purchase, but then out of curiosity I decided to try their Arizona brand jeans on. A helpful customer service rep found me the exact right size. They fit perfectly, and cost less than the Levis 505s, and were available for a «buy one get one free» promotional.
The rep then told me that if I just asked, I would get their «friends and family» discount on top of the «buy one get one free» deal. So, I walked out of there with two new pairs of jeans at $ 16 each! How cool is that?

This review is not for JCPenny, it is only for the Sephora located in their store. First of all, let me preface this by saying I LOVE Sephora. This was my first time going to one located in JCPenny. I purchased some makeup and redeemed 500 points for their smashbox reward. When I got home to test out the new samples, it looked as if they were already USED. I have NEVER had to check these items prior to leaving the store, but I think it is a good idea to do so. It was such a waste of my time. I tried to exchange it at the Alderwood mall but they didn’t even have that reward anymore so I ended up having to drive all the way back to Northgate anyway.

This place is good, but understaffed. When I came in, there was only one guy answering phones, dealing with all the customers who come wandering in, and fitting people. By the time I left, he had answered two calls (1 of which wanted to know in extensive details his AND the doctors full career history), 4 women needing glasses and repairs, and a bunch of looky loo’s. He still managed to answer my questions and fully sort out the most cost effective plans for me. Dylan, you rock! I hope your bosses see this, because you made a great impression on me! Thanks for the service and yes, I will be «seeing» you soon!

I actually think JCPenney is a great store. The Northgate store has a good dress department, and I have also bought two pairs of glasses at their optical department. I get compliments on my dresses, glasses, and jewelry all of the time, and people can’t believe that I got them at Penney’s.

One of the biggest JCPenney’s I have been to. They have a lot of selection, but I swear I have been here 10+ times and can never find an employee when I need assistance.
I have never purchased anything here for this reason.
One pro: this location has an attached Sephora!

I came to JCPenney only because I was given a gift card and didn’t want to pay for the shipping for an online purchase. I’m not a fan of Penney’s since it screams 1985 to me. However, I did find a t-​shirt and a polo shirt that I liked, and they were on sale. I only spent $ 26 total, including tax.
I looked through all of the women’s clothes they had. Even though they were having some crazy sales and a lot of things on the clearance racks, it’s clear that their target audience is over 60 years old or fashion challenged.
The cashier was bored out of her mind.
I could tell the store had a remodel, but there weren’t many customers there while the rest of the mall was jam packed.

Absolute worst return policy of any major retailer. If someone buys you a gift here, make sure you ask for the receipt… Even if you just want to exchange for a different size or get store credit. I can’t believe this is the 21^st century and they can’t look up transactions by scanning a tag. They do have good deals but the lack of customer service leaves me wanting time and time again. This location is in a forgotten corner of the mall, so you might miss it.

JC Penney may not be the king of high fasion, but I have mostly found them to be acceptable for the basic staple — jeans, t-​shirts, underthings, and the like. So, with our mini-​heatwave and finding myself in need of some shorts and such, I stopped by the JC Penney at Northgate this afternoon.
The first thing I noticed is the quality of their clothes has gone seriously downhill. There were a few items that, from a distance, looked ok. However, when I got closer, found they just looked very cheap. (My husband later commented that they seem to be taking a cue from Forever 21.)
Still, I did find two things I was actually going to buy: A pair of denim shorts (after all, denim is denim) and a Liz Claiborne shirt (after all, Liz is not «Joe Fresh»). However, when I got to the register, both ended up being more expensive than I was expecting. The shorts, on a rack marked «$ 17.99,» rang in at $ 19.99, and the shirt, on a rack marked «50−70% off,» rang in at 25% off. When I questioned this, it was explained to me that the signs, in both cases, referred to other items on the racks and not the ones I had actually selected.
While this might be technically correct, it is, in my mind, also intentionally misleading. And that, Mr. JC Penney, sucks. You are struggling to survive and you address this by selling inferior products and deceiving your customers. Awesome game plan! I can’t speak for all of course, but I know, I, for one, will not be stepping back into a JC Penney anytime soon.

The guy that helped me check out my stuff didn’t take the magnetic tag off a pair of pants I purchased. I had to go all the way back just to have that taken off. When I asked the guy where I could register a complaint, he said that it happens all the time and that it wasn’t a big deal. I did not ask him for his opinion, I just asked for some information (which he refused to give me).
(PS — He also told me that the alarms on the exits were turned off, which is probably why I didn’t beep on my way out. If you’re planning to do some shoplifting, this is the place to be. JK! :P This store is no good otherwise.)

Oh JCP, what’s your deal? I’ve never, ever shopped you before, since your product was so boring and old lady, and now it’s actually not half bad, some of the a.n.a. stuff is cute, and the Joe Fresh and Mango brands are fun. Your styles are becoming more elevated, and yet, you’re still acting like an old lady store. What’s up with that?
If I want to return something that I bought online (whoa, even through the app, so fancy!), I shouldn’t have to go to 3 different desks to return it (in the basement nonetheless!!). I wouldn’t have returned it if the quality was so gross. The Joe Fresh sweater I bought, that had a cool skeleton intarsia, smelled like pure toxic chemicals. NOTHING would have helped this sweater, so it had to go back.
Each time I’ve visited to buy things in the store (only twice, I’ll admit), I’ve had to wait in obnoxious lines, with one cashier for a line of people, so not cool.
If you want to play with the big guys (Nordstrom, Macy’s, Gap, Anthropologie, etc), you need to act like them. Have a decent amount of cashiers. Don’t act like your a cheap, off price discounter with no sales people to be seen. Don’t make your customers trek around the store to 3 different desks, ultimately in the basement, to return a sweater that smelled like ammonia. Have some pride already.
I’ll give you two stars, because you’ve made an enormous improvement with your product — your design talent pool has increased for sure. But everything else is still stuck in 1978. Come on already, get with the times, before you file for Chapter 11.

Tries to charge customers for a complimentary bag. No thank you. I took my business elsewhere in the mall where that charge was not being imposed on customers. Scatter brained sales people as well. Lots of old people clothing nothing fresh. Horrible JCP!

JCPenney has really improved their clothing department over the past five years or so. I used to never go to JC Penney but they have started bringing on chic brands like Joe Fresh, MNG By Mango (now phased out), Nicole by Nicole Miller, and even Nanette Lepore’s juniors line L’amour. The prices are a lot cheaper than, say Nordstrom’s, and some of the quality is not too bad.
I find that JC Penney usually has coupons so I would double check the website before you buy anything.
The clearance racks definitely have hidden gems but the sorting is really awful. I find myself often moving items around so that the next customer is not confused why there are so many L and XL shirts in the XS section.
The lighting/​atmosphere of the store is not that great though. It always feels dim.

This is not the frumpy, low-​rent JC Penny of your childhood.
In June 2011 JC Penny hired former Apple retail executive Ron Johnson as its new CEO. Almost immediately Johnson set the storied, but tired, retail chain on a new course, looking to replicate the magic of Apple’s retail success in a department store format.
JC Penny became JCP and an aggressive and lengthy rebirth was underway. Focusing on three cornerstones of retail — price, merchandise and stores — some of Johnson’s initiatives have been successful while others have been abandoned in the face of soft sales and criticism by Wall Street.
I first realized that something special was taking place at JCP as the fall merchandise started arriving in the stores. Looking for a new sport coat, I wandered into the Bellevue Square location one afternoon and was amazed to find one sport coat after another that were not only very good looking, but very reasonably priced as well. A few days later I dragged my wife into the Northgate location and walked out with an overcoat, a sport coat, a couple of pairs of Levi’s and two caps. It was a great shopping experience which turned us both into fans of the new JCP and Ron Johnson’s strategy. I love Johnson’s in-​store shops which creates focus departments such as Levis or Joe Fresh, a new line from Canada. Ultimately each JCP may have as many as 100 of these focus departments.
There’s still a ways to go, however. Looking for a nice pair of pajamas for my wife for Mother’s Day, for example, I found the assortment to be more indicative of the old JC Penny’s than the new JCP. But, as they say, «Rome wasn’t built in a day» and with each new season, Johnson’s vision will be expanded across the assortment. In fact, just walking through the Northgate store the first weekend of April, large areas of the home department were walled off to construct exciting new home shops featuring hip new brands such as Happy Chic by Jonathan Adler.
Speaking of construction, that’s the second piece of Johnson’s strategy — modernizing the stores and closing stores in which further investment doesn’t make sense. For years the Northgate JCP has been as frumpy as its customers. But, one is already seeing the infrastructure investment, making the store far more appealing than it was just a few months ago. And, customers seem to be responding. Over the first weekend of April, the store was busy with shoppers — more so than both the Macy’s and Nordstrom in the mall.
The final piece of Johnson’s strategy, day-​in, day-​out value pricing has been a tough sell with customers accustomed to weekly department store sales. And in fact, the value-​price strategy was unceremoniously abandoned during the 2012 holiday season. Today, as I write this review, the main image on the
website is a coupon for 20% off. That’s a margin killer, especially when the prices are set at a level specifically designed to not be promoted at a lower price.
There once was a time when the most common word used to describe Apple, was «beleaguered». Today, that word may be most frequently used when describing JCP. JC Penny’s previous customers, the self-​described «frumpy and proud» (
) have abandoned the store in search of frumpy clothes from other retailers (may I suggest The Dress Barn?), while the store’s desired demographic (ahem, that’s me) hasn’t yet embraced the changes, or is perhaps waiting for the changes to mature further.
So, will there be a happy ending for JCP, just as there was for Apple?
Well certainly only time will tell, but I for one am rooting for the company with great enthusiasm and with my wallet.
UPDATE: Just a few hours after I posted this review, Ron Johnson was fired by the Board of Directors at JC Penny. What a shame. Johnson was on the right track and the board cut him off at the knees. As the blogger John Moltz stated, «You don’t turn around a crappy aircraft carrier full of chinos, Christmas sweaters and cheap curtains in two years» (
).

I used to loathe JcPenney, crammed with racks of sale clothing dangling sullenly from the hangers, waiting to be rescued from this retail hell.
Then something happened. JcP (new moniker) got sort of cool. They started carrying a few more interesting designer bargain lines and the merchandise quality seemed to improve, ever so slightly.
The displays become sleeker and less fussy and the prices stabilized at a reasonable price point without the ever present sales/​coupons/​discount madness.
This store is huge and it seems well staffed. The staff might be making a decent hourly wage because they are friendly and available to answer questions. Regular low prices AND good service? You go JcP!

I miss the old Penney’s. Yes, I said it. I don’t like the remodel.
Honestly, I don’t need Sephora at Penney’s. If I want make up, I’ll go to Ulta.
Also, the inventory in the store seems much smaller to me.
Here’s what I do like — new lounges near the fitting rooms for impatient people waiting for people like me to try on clothes. The chairs are nice.

This location has been here for longer than I can remember although a recent renovation has it looking like a brand new store. Everything is clean and about as organized as this type of store can be. The focus here is not on providing an extremely high level of service, but what they do provide is usually more than adequate.
i’m not the type of shopper that needs a lot of help or is looking for advice or validation regarding my shopping choices so this suits me just fine. What I mainly come here for is to stock up on basic items and especially when they are on sale. JC Penney meets those needs nicely with a no frills environment.
If you are familiar with JC Penney stores, and most likely you are, then you know exactly what to expect when you walk in. Like I said earlier, this store has been here forever, but shows no signs of aging or being out dated.

As I recently admitted in my Kohls review, I have some shameful shopping secrets. This is another one. While I generally think the Northgate mall sucks, I walked into JCPenney out of desperation one day looking for some boring work appropriate clothes. I was shocked as I kept piling things on my arm to try on. The prices are really good (there’s always a sale going on) and I’ve been back a few times and always find something good. I like how no one really bothers you while you’re shopping, but the customer service is actually great when you seek it out (which is how I prefer to shop). There is also a mini Sephora inside, which is probably Northgate Mall’s best kept secret!
I’m surprised, but I’m a fan!