Personally, I shopped more at JCP over the past 8 months than the previous 15 years. There was an appealing mix of brands, quality, and fair prices that struck a chord with me. Unfortunately, it clearly didn't work for the majority of the mall-shopping public that has been trained to only buy when there's a sale or coupon.
His strategy seems to be based at copying what worked with Apple. Reducing product lines, making things upscale, removing sales, etc. I don't think how anyone who actually knew JCPenney would have thought that was a good idea. Their brand was already ruined.
Its not the general public at fault. Past JCPenney management ruined the brand by going coupon crazy. To the point that my wife only shops there when there is some stupid take 15% off, then add and additional 12% off of you buy another coupon. Otherwise, she thinks its too expensive (which I do think is right) for a department store.
This is the same kind of scenario that happens to businesses that became Groupon addicted. People stopped buying when no Groupon was available.
Kohl's and Target have stolen the JCP consumer. Name recognition on clothes, low prices and sales, streamlined and targeted advertising, quality for a fair price. It's not that hard to do, Johnson just didn't know how to do it.
I'll probably never step foot in there again now that they're going back to their ridiculous pricing strategy.