Man, this is kind of a poor article, down to the insinuation that Ron Johnson was the dude who decided to include in-store WiFi. (I say this because the Sears and Nordstrom in my local mall both have free WiFi, and whether its a good thing or a bad thing it certainly isn't causing JCP to hemorrhage money.)

I haven't heard much about Ron's attempts to actually change the retail and storefront look or offerings compared to his attempts to change consumers, which I think is much loftier. The shop that the author describes sounds identical to a JCP store from five years ago -- and sounds identical to all of its competitors today.

I think a much more cogent point (that the author was flirting with, assuredly) is that consumers don't go about buying clothes the same way they go about buying technology. JCP's strategy is to appeal to the rational consumer -- the consumer who sits down and makes a pro-con list for every prospective purchase, the consumer who divorces themselves from such petty things like cheap heuristics and the innate pull of a "THIS WEEKEND ONLY!" sale.

Those consumers might employ such strategies for a $1500 laptop (or a $500 phone), but probably not for a pair of $50 khakis.