It’s an Obama world.
In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, a shopper drags her purchases past a line of customers waiting to pay at a J.C. Penney store, in Las Vegas. The mid-priced department store chain on Wednesday, Feb. 26. 2013. reported another much larger-than-expected loss in the fiscal fourth quarter and a nearly 30 percent plunge in revenue in the latest sign that shoppers aren’t happy with the changes it’s made in the past year. (AP)
J.C. Penney Co. announced today that it had laid off around 2,200 employees at 100 stores and offices.
The Chicago Tribune reported:
J.C. Penney Co. said it has recently laid off about 2,200 employees at 100 of its stores and district offices, the latest move by the struggling department store operator to contain costs as it contends with deep sales declines.
Penney last week reported sales had fallen 25 percent in the first year of Chief Executive Ron Johnson’s strategy of refashioning Penney stores into collections of branded boutiques and getting rid of hundreds of sales events and coupons.
Johnson, who has started reversing that strategy, told a New York court last week that the retailer had laid off 19,000 workers to that point.
The latest job cuts were concentrated in about 100 stores where sales fell the most and back office positions. A Penney spokeswoman said none of the cuts affected staff who deal with customers.
“We wanted to ensure that these reductions do not compromise the level of customer service provided in stores,” spokeswoman Daphne Avila said in an email.
Hat Tip Mara
