J.C. Penney

In a sweeping move to right the ship after former CEO Ron Johnson's failed attempt to reinvent the J.C. Penney brand and inject new life into the business, the company has adopted a bold new marketing strategy — hire its retired former CEO, whom Johnson replaced just about two years earlier, and quickly return to the deep discounts and doorbuster deals that originally got the brand into this mess. Wait. What?

At the beginning of Ron Johnson's short-lived but infamous reign as J.C. Penney's CEO in January 2012, he unveiled a logo that completely rebranded the company as JCP. It was its third logo in as many years. Following Johnson's dismissal, a result of losing $43 billion in sales and isolating loyal customers with its new business approach, J.C. Penney has made a concerted effort to go back to the good old days.

Economists aren't the only ones watching improving home sales closely. Emboldened by recent numbers, retail giants J.C. Penney and Target are bolstering their home furnishing offerings in hopes that new buyers will need to decorate. The decision to invest in the home section could be a smart one if recent retail sales trends hold steady. In March, sales at e first quarter while appliance sales were about 0.7 percent higher.

You've seen the public apology video. But, the better story is how J.C. Penney is engaging with customers commenting on the mea culpa. It seems the company has clearly learned a valuable lesson: Listen to your customers. The company is letting commenters know their feedback is being passed on to internal teams such as the buying department. Two days after the video was posted it had attracted about 200,000 views and nearly 900 comments. J.C. Penney was commenting about 30 times an hour, mostly in reply to other comments - both positive and negative.

"It's no secret," begins a new J.C. Penney television ad, to a soft piano soundtrack and nostalgic images of old storefronts. "Recently, J.C. Penney changed." That's something of an understatement. In April, the clothing retailer booted CEO Ron Johnson, wooed from Apple with much fanfare, after he oversaw a $4 billion loss in revenue in his brief tenure. As former CEO Mike Ullman goes about stemming the bleeding, J.C. Penney is going on the offensive, apologizing to shoppers alienated by Johnson's controversial store revamps.

In its simplest form, J.C. Penney's new sales plan is to raise prices on select items and mark them down periodically with sales and coupons. While there's nothing inherently wrong with this model, consumers should be aware that prices have spiked significantly on collaboration lines, and we've yet to see any sales to bring them back down to previous levels. 

Myron Ullman has another item on his to-do list as he tries to revive J.C. Penney: dealing with litigation alleging the department store chain didn't pay for store upgrades ordered by predecessor Ron Johnson. EMJ Corp., a general contractor based in Chattanooga, Tenn., has filed liens totaling $2.3 million and lawsuits against the retailer in three states, saying it refused to pay for work completed in September. R&R Packaging Inc. of Gravette, Ark., has a pending action claiming it's owed $4 million for installing wireless internet networks in J.C. Penney stores across the country last year.

The mass exodus of shoppers from J.C. Penney, prompted by the drastic store changes made by now-ousted CEO Ron Johnson, serves as a cautionary tale of what can happen when retailers don't follow that old saying by fabled retailer Marshall Field, "give the lady what she wants." But that is, of course, easier said than done. What exactly does she want? Retailers are paying closer attention to the tricky art and science of creating a compelling in-store experience that matches shoppers wants and needs.

J.C. Penney is allegedly investigating whether its construction teams are remodeling stores without proper building permits. In-house lawyers have been questioning employees about bending rules as the retailer rushes to unveil 700 new shop-in-shops nationwide, reports James Covert at the New York Post.

Macy's has filed an appeal challenging a judge's ruling that J.C. Penney can sell unbranded Martha Stewart goods in its stores for now — the latest salvo in a legal war between the two retailers over rights to the domestic doyenne's products. Justice Jeffrey Oing in Manhattan state court said on Friday that J.C. Penney could sell certain Martha Stewart-designed goods as long as they don't carry her name. The decision was a reprieve for the troubled retailer which has already had the products manufactured and is storing them in warehouses.