PLANO (CBSDFW.COM)- The New York Post is reporting that thousands of JCPenney workers could soon be in the unemployment line. According to the newspaper, the company is “slashing thousands of jobs nationwide.”
Officials with the Plano-based company are denying the claim and say the positions being eliminated are seasonal.
Whether or not the staff reduction is true, David Johnson, a business analyst for KRLD NewsRadio 1080, said new JCPenney CEO and former Apple executive Ron Johnson has his work cut out for him.
“He’s gotta find some way to skew those demographics and get younger people into JCPenney stores,” he said. “We’ve seen JCPenney remade I can’t tell you how many times over the last 20 years.”
Johnson said JCPenney has struggled with its identity and ability to retain customers for years.
“They have gone heads-up with Kohl’s, as a sort of middle-market retailer, and over the years they’ve lost,” he said. “And when times get tough their customers drop down and go shopping at Wal-Mart and other places but they don’t have anybody that drops down to them, so they get squeezed. And in this case a lot of the customers haven’t come back.
In December, JCPenney secured a lucrative deal with Martha Stewart Living that includes having mini-stores within the anchor stores. Earlier this month, the company cut its fourth-quarter profit forecast.
