JCPenney CEO on Holiday Shopping, Finding Value, Jobs

Who needs rate cuts in this economy? And the answer increasingly, of course, is that middle class consumer. It's that lower tier consumer. And with that in mind, what do your promotionals and your sales look like heading into the holiday season? Well, that's right. I mean, I think as you look at the economy right now, certainly the consumer is pressed a bit right now. And we do say that our customer, which is really America's diverse working families, it's that middle class consumer. It's that working family. It's the teachers that teach our kids. It's the medical workers that take care of us and our family and the construction workers that build our homes. And they are stretched right now. But we're actually really encouraged with what we've seen really since back to school. So we saw kind of a step change improvement in traffic and sales and back to school. And then I know you were just rolling the tape from our really big deals, which air every Thursday night on Thursday Night Football. And we've been really encouraged with what we're seeing with that, too. In fact, we've now seen where we expect that during the holiday we're going to have from that Thursday Night Football, over two million new customers who are in our file by that time. And so the customer is looking for value, but they're also looking for joy and they're going to celebrate and they're going to have holiday. And we're confident about that. Right. And of course, October 18th, as she was pointing out, we're already in a Christmas decorating season here. But I am curious. I mean, when you think about JCPenney, of course, you've been around for a long, long time. You're an iconic brand that has fallen on some hard times. How do you balance, of course, promotions putting through discounts while still trying to build brand relevancy and brand value? I have to imagine that's a difficult needle to thread. Right. So as you mentioned, right, JCPenney has been around for over 120 years, and throughout that time, we've always stood for value to the consumer. And so value is a really important part of our proposition. But value is about more than just promotion and price values about being able to find the fashion statements that you want. So for holiday, we're introducing I think one of my favorite items is a bear paw blanket. Right. Really comfy. Really great item. It's going to be in our stores. It's at a great price. And you can find that for holiday. I think, you know, when we talk about value, also, it's not just meaning low price. So one of the biggest items for women this holiday, we're expecting to be diamonds. And we have a great jewelry department that sells those diamonds at a great price and a great value for what you're getting. But the consumer is interested in buying those items. So for us, really, the brand value proposition is about accessible fashion. It's about finding great value, which is quality and brands at a really outstanding price. And it's about a great shopping experience. And it's that combination that's going to win. It's interesting. You're clearly making a lot of inventory choices at this moment based on changing consumer preferences. I'm wondering, Mark, in the other direction, are there things that you seem to be buying a lot less of these days, given where consumer preferences are headed? Yeah, I think as we as we look at holiday, we're really focused on what we're buying and making sure that we have the right inventory. And a lot of our we announced about a year ago, a billion dollar self-funded reinvestment in the business. A big part of that was in inventory tools and making sure that we're getting the right items in the right place for the customer. So we're certainly focused on some of the big items that we know we're going to have. Our St. John's Bay cable knit sweater is always, always a best seller. But we are also focused on what are some of the items that are not selling as well. And how do we make sure we can invest that inventory in the things that are going to drive sales growth? What is the main cohort you're going after? I mean, it's been said middle class. Certainly that was the case when I was a kid in central Ohio. But that was a long time ago. Who is your customer and how is that customer doing right now? Yeah, our customer, we say our customer is really the core of America. It is America's diverse working families. So as I said earlier, it really is the teachers that are teaching our kids. It's construction workers that are building our homes and offices. It's the medical workers taking care of us and our families. And it is that core of America household that we're serving with all the things that they can do. So whether that's towels for their home, whether that's sheets, whether that is clothing or whether that's holiday gifts. And we're really excited this year. We've expanded our holiday gift selection, but it's everything to serve the needs of that family. What about your workers who is working for you and and how difficult or easy is it for you to find employees to fully staff a store? Because frankly, for me, at least the retail experience, not J.C. Penny, you know, but most stores has been really disappointing the last few years. It doesn't seem like there are enough people working there. They don't seem to be really happy with their job. They're not super helpful to customers. So how are you dealing with that? Right. So I think for us, one of the interesting things is our employees. And when we centered ourselves around our purpose of serving America's diverse working families, that's really our employee. Also, our employee mirrors our customer. And so we have operated for over 120 years on the golden rule, which is letting others have the experience and treating others the way that we want to be treated. And that's the guideline of our customer service in stores. We've been encouraged with staffing for this holiday and really over the last probably 12 plus months as we look at the labor market that both in our stores and our distribution centers, we've been able to hire. We also have a lot of long tenured associates in our stores, and we're really focused on net promoter score. And we've seen a big increase in net promoter score as we've remodeled our stores and as we've really focused on the service initiative within stores. And I'm taking a look at some recent headlines in September. The news came out that you plan to hire more than 10,000 seasonal workers for this upcoming holiday season. How does that compare to years past, Mark? That's it's really a similar trend to years past. So not a big difference this year. I think we're expecting a strong holiday season and we're staffing up for that holiday season and we're hiring accordingly.