JC Penney's to phase out checkout counters, clerks by 2014

[mauve]

From CNN:

Struggling retailer JC Penney has an idea to boost business: get rid of check-out counters.

CEO Ron Johnson says the department store chain is replacing all its technology infrastructure with a new systemthat won't require clerks. Instead, shoppers will be able to use self-checkout machines, similar to those found in many grocery stores. It's part of an effort to return the company to profitability. JC Penney is also planning to replace traditional bar codes on price tags with high-tech radio frequency identification, or "RFID," chips to make purchases faster.

Johnson told "Fortune" that he hopes to phase out checkout counters by 2014.

So JC Penney's first genius business move to make more money was to advertise that they were no longer going to have limited-time sales, instead making everything "at sales price" all the time. Which basically just means they've just told everyone they're not going to have sales anymore. Which didn't go over well, apparently.

Now they're going to spend money for all new equipment, new RFID tags for every item, probably cut clerk jobs since they won't need as many (during a time when such activity is frowned upon by the general public, I might add), and make people use self checkout stands, which I'm pretty sure about 75% of the population dislikes using at grocery stores.


Well done, guys. Well done.

Thoughts? Am I just misreading this?

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Self-checkout really only works if you don't have that much shit to buy. At least at the grocery store, if I have enough items that I need to take a cart, I'm going to go through the clerk checkout. I have a feeling people who have to buy a lot of clothes at the same time will feel the same. Additionally, how easy would it be for a tech-literate person to rewrite the RFID chip to get a better price as opposed to modifying a barcode?

[rpgdemon]

RFID chips aren't really rewritable. Generally they're just a circuit that receives a signal and then, powered by the signal it receives, sends one back.

What COULD happen, however, is someone could find the signal that was sent back of a cheaper item, and make an emitter to mimic that signal. Granted, this is much harder to do than, say, just print out a barcode of a cheaper item to scan, which is the equivalent of this in non-RFID terms.

More importantly, how are we supposed to cool-step to ladies whose nametags said Jenny, and get with their sister Debra, if there are no more cashiers?

Y_7foC40SP4

[Magus]

Yeah I noticed that JC Penny's seemed totally devoid of sales every time I go there. I wondered what was up with that. I used to buy quite a bit of dress clothing there, now I'm lucky to buy one thing a year or something.

[Aerozord]

are the chips embedded? couldn't the person just take the chip off and simply walk out? Guess the same for barcodes but thats why they have those security ink things.

[akaSM]

Self checkout?

Déjà vu

[Ecks]

this basically fucks my company over hard. If they switch over to rfid tags then they'll most likely go to an internal audit system, since they will no longer have barcodes to scan.

Oh well, always hated counting Pennies anyway.

[Odjn]

I like how everyone has gotten the sales thing entirely wrong in this thread.

So, the thing with that is that department stores have sales, except the 'sales price' is actually just the base price that they normally charge and everything else not on sale has an increased price. JC Penney stopped doing that- all their items are now cheaper than before, with some exceptions probably. So that's good for the consumer, but the consumer is an idiot and thinks oh its not on sale, it must be expensive.

[Magus]

I like how everyone has gotten the sales thing entirely wrong in this thread.

So, the thing with that is that department stores have sales, except the 'sales price' is actually just the base price that they normally charge and everything else not on sale has an increased price. JC Penney stopped doing that- all their items are now cheaper than before, with some exceptions probably. So that's good for the consumer, but the consumer is an idiot and thinks oh its not on sale, it must be expensive.

Hmm, no, they used to do sales where they sold dress shirts for 15 dollars or even less, for example, I never saw any of those the past year or more. They just charge their normal price from what I have seen. They even quit sending out those "ten dollars off a purchase of 25 dollars or more" coupons I used to get.

That said I think I was in one the other day that's not the one I normally go to and they basically had a sale on some polo shirts so maybe they are still doing sales so that is not true, just it's also not like you say where their overall prices are lower than before because they aren't.

[Michie]

The interesting thing about them thinking they can get rid of clerks is someone still needs to monitor those self-checkouts as they tend to screw up often enough. Not to mention if something doesn't scan, doesn't have a tag, etc.

[Kim]

I like how everyone in this thread is acting as though the phasing out of as many employees as humanly possible isn't the ultimate goal of every single company out there. Cashiers will, eventually, be a thing of the past.

That's just the way it is.

EDIT: "The first attempts at automated checkouts aren't perfect, therefore automated checkouts aren't viable at all."

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I agree that automatic checkouts can be more efficient than cashiers at times, but I also believe that in some other cases it'd be better to have a person available to help process your transaction. Fully automated systems with zero oversight are going to take a lot of time and effort to develop to their full extent; trying to go fully clerk-less before that time is going to potentially cause more issues than they solve. Besides, it'll take just as long for the cultural transition to take place as people get more acclimated to the new systems.

[Magus]

Machines are soulless automatons, though. Like I'm sure in the future robots will do everything, from driving buses to doing surgery. And then all that will be left for people are jobs building robots. And then eventually robots that build robots. And then we'll be in Protomen territory.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Hmm... frankly I just don't see Penney's surviving too much longer. The decisions made by their CEO have proven vastly unpopular, and took a rather popular and profitable company down by more than a notch or six... anyone know if he might be related to Reed Hastings of Netflix?

[Magus]

To follow that model JC Penny's would have to stick all their non-clothing electronic and appliance goods into another store-front called Dimester.

[Bum Bill Bee]

Me and my mom completely hate this move, largely because she's a JCP clerk (a highly competant, well decorated one at that) herself.