Wizbang Pop!

JCPENNEY Executive Admits New Pricing Strategy A Failure

2012-05-16T22:18:33Z

Ron Johnson, CEO of JCPenney now candidly admits that the new pricing strategy of the company has been a failure, where the company missed sales projections by 15%. Under Johnson’s leadership, the company eliminated sales in favor of low everyday prices, however that backfired by not giving potential customers much incentive to shop at JCPenney stores, and instead chose to shop elsewhere for advertised specials.

Johnson prefers to blame the customers, claiming that they “don’t get” the new company pricing strategy. But, it actually appears to be Johnson who just doesn’t get many things about business for own his part. For one thing, most stores advertise and run specials precisely because it does bring in customers. Further, Penney’s has now lost that incentive edge against other competitors with Johnson’s pricing plan. Further, customers are smart enough to see that overall they’re likely paying more than they used to because of less sales and attempts to end coupon use at the stores. Customers actually see through the new JCPENNEY pricing strategy and don’t really like it, and sales are missing projections as a natural result.

Johnson even offered up the convoluted reasoning that “Coupons were a drug, they really drove traffic” to justify his screwy plan to ween customers away from coupons. If Johnson knew that most successful business retailers for similar goods as what sells use coupons to drive traffic, then why walk away from this proven formula?

Under Johnson’s leadership, JCPenney common stock is down about 20% in value today in the worst price plunge for that stock , and quarterly sales projections are off course as well. But, Johnson has his fans such as a former Kraft executive who has raised Johnson as a “Rocket man”, claiming that he is just what JCPenney needs at the helm. However, there has to be more than a JCPenney stock shareholders who might just beg to disagree with Johnson’s leadership at this time. When some new CEO brings both sales and the price of stocks down with unproven sales methods, wise investors will look to jump ship from a stock like this.

It was announced today that JCPenney posted a $163 million quarterly loss, and was canceling dividends to shareholders. Wisely, I sold my own shares last week during day trading on a hunch that things weren’t well at JCPenney. Their advertising campaign looked like a real dud to me. Hunches in business are all important. At some point JCPenney should be a strong company again, and their stock will look like a bargain at today’s bargain basement prices. But, for today it sure seems like smart money to stay away from this stock until the company institutes some more normal pricing policies in their stores.

Celebrity Does The Carpet Match The Drapes?

2012-05-15T23:19:07Z

Here’s Katy Perry. Probably, not a natural blue-haired beauty, would you say? So does the carpet match the drapes? Likely not….

Motorcycles Are Big Business For Hollywood(And A Lifeline For Manufacturers)

2012-05-15T23:02:45Z

This Summer, expect to see plenty of blazing motorcycles in Hollywood blockbusters like THE AVENGERS, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, G.I. JOE: RETALIATION, LOCKOUT, and other films as Hollywood looks to add action to a number of hot films. And some companies such as Harley Davidson, Ducati, and others stand to profit from their wares being featured in top action films.

The motorcycle manufacturers can sure use this good publicity right now. Thanks to the ravages of the recession along with some more restrictive motorcycle licensing laws in some states, motorcycles have lost more than half of their sales since 2007. Sales fell from around 948,000 in 2007, to 441,000 last year. Although motorcycles often offer far better gas mileage than automobiles, along with far better performance, both the recession as well as government have managed to make motorcycles less appealing to buyers than automobiles, keeping fuel demand high, and only helping to boost gasoline to $4 a gallon levels as some oil companies choose to idle many of their oil wells in order to up profits. Overall oil production is currently less than 1985 for example, because oil companies have decided to idle so many of their oil wells to boost profits, despite a high demand for their oil.

Many consumers are wary of the safety of motorcycles, however the sale of some three-wheeled motorcycles have gained appeal in recent years. Some of the models offer more creature comfort than two wheeled models along with some important safety features. In one state, California, licensing views three-wheeled motorcycles much the same as an automobile, saving the rider the expense of rider education courses and other barriers to acquiring a license that government has thrown up to discourage motorcycle use by the public. Government seems to think that courses where riders ride around endlessly in a circle around some track gives them the experience needed to avoid accidents. Yet, this approach fails to note that most automobile drivers learn to drive on public streets with real world experiences in real traffic, with real world conditions such as having to stop and go, watch for pedestrians, and traffic control devices.

Hollywood may play a big role in revving up motorcycle sales this Summer if the brands want to pull out of their sales funk blues.

30 ROCK Season 7 Will Be The Last

2012-05-15T02:38:12Z

The producers and cast of 30 ROCK have decided to end the show after this upcoming season. The show became a vehicle for talented SNL writer and performer Tina Fay to write a prime time comedy that has won more than a few Emmy nominations and Awards. And, although this Tina Fey written production is coming to an end, NBC hopes that Tina Fey will consider a new project for the network and remain an entity at NBC for many years to come.

When Tina Fey and some talented female cast members took over the helm at SNL some years ago, it seemed like a golden age for the show compared to the previous intellectual and acting funk it was in. Tina Fey did wonders for that show. And apparently she worked some magic for prime time TV as well according to all the nominations for awards for 30 ROCK. NBC owes Tina Fey a ton of praise for what she’s done for the also-ran TV network.

Donald “Duck” Dunn Dead At 70

2012-05-14T03:53:25Z

Famed bass player for Booker T & The MGs, Donald “Duck” Dunn, has died at the age of 70, in his sleep while on a tour in Tokyo, Japan. Widely respected as one of the world’s greatest bass players, Dunn had received a lifetime achievement award Grammy for his musical abilities as well as songwriting skills. Dunn was also one of the all star musicians in THE BLUES BROTHERS movie and band as well.

Donald “Duck” Dunn joined Booker T & The MGs in 1965, where he and Steve Cropper on guitar were two white members of one of the finest R&B instrumentals acts of all time. For 1965, a racially integrated R&B act like this was considered to be groundbreaking. It also gave Dunn and Cropper reputations as two of the finest white soul musicians of the era as well. In the South, Dunn and Cropper were music legends in soul music, while white session guitarist, Dennis Coffee made news in Motown in the North as a sought after talent.

BTW, MG meant Memphis Group in the name of the act. There is a very nice boxed set of cds available of Booker T & The MGs, which presents a nice overview of the works of both Dunn and Cropper in the band. Dunn often played bass with his characteristic pipe in his mouth, something rather unique among musicians. Dunn’s name seemed a constant for years among the PLAYBOY Rock and Jazz musician polls, where readers had a chance to vote for top musicians for the PLAYBOY honors.

Thanks so much for the good tunes, Donald “Duck” Dunn. You made my life more rich with your music.

1934 Morgan Super Sport: Motorcycle Meets Sports Car

2012-05-13T23:22:45Z

The 1934 Morgan Super Sport was an unique trike-based sports car. It featured a front mounted 1100cc motorcycle engine on display along with the unique trike three wheeled design. Morgan actually built three-wheeled sports cars until 1952, partly due to a tax advantage enjoyed in England on motorcycles compared to automobiles. Yet, the 1930′s models had a strong following in racing despite only having a 28hp engine.

As early as 1911, Morgan began to build the unique sports cars. Early examples even had a wood frame, made from hardened wood. However, later models with metal frames were light enough that the motorcycle based V-Twin styled two cylinder engines were more than adequate for the lightweight sports cars. But, Morgan also had four cylinder powered models from 1932-1952 as well.

Morgan still is in business and continues to build cars to this day. They even have a brand three-wheeled model expected for U.S. delivery in June 2012.

CBS Cancels CSI: MIAMI, UNFORGETTABLE & ROB

2012-05-13T22:22:02Z

Buzz for days was that CBS would likely cancel either CSI: NY or CSI:MIAMI, leading to a waiting game by anxious viewers of both shows. And the ending of CSI_NY on Friday sure looked like a possible exit episode to most viewers. However, it turned out that it was CSI:MIAMI that got cut from the CBS Fall lineup. CSI:MIAMI lasted for 10 seasons, but seemed to be hit with lagging ratings after a move to Sunday from it’s long held Monday night 10pm slot. Further, HAWAII 5-0, which replaced CSI:MIAMI on Monday night seemed like a slightly similar tropical crime drama, perhaps not really leaving room for two shows with slightly similar themes.

David Caruso played an interesting lead character in CSI:MIAMI. He played the role much like a Western gunslinger, where it wasn’t too difficult not to imagine him as some tough Western sheriff out to clean up crime in his town. David Caruso’s role will go in history as one of the great crime fighters on the small screen.

It wasn’t too surprising to see that CBS would cancel ROB. Rob Schneider is a very nice fellow, but he has managed to fail at nearly everything he attempts. Most of his movies are considered to be box office poison by the critics. But, in all fairness, ROB had a few pretty funny moments and wasn’t as painful as a tooth extraction to watch. It was sort of enjoyable, and even did pretty well in the ratings for a short time before settling into a slump between THE BIG BANG THEORY and PERSON OF INTEREST on Thursday. CBS just needed a little stronger entry in that prime-time 8:30 time slot and gave ROB it’s eight week run to prove itself. But, now the show won’t go back into production again. It’s over.

UNFORGETTABLE was also canceled by CBS, just as some TV insiders were claiming would happen. Yet, the show actually began to build an audience in recent weeks, even finally making a brief appearance among the top 20 shows on TV. CBS even went to some lengths to induce viewers to watch by even recently referring to the show as a “hit show”. But, CBS actually had intentions to end the Poppy Montgomery crime drama and to look to replace it with something else. CBS probably never felt the show was really a hit and was just looking to recruit viewers with a little hype. But, this show wasn’t that bad. It was a fairly good crime drama, but just had the hit power of some other CBS crime dramas.

Now, the job at CBS is to carefully tweak the schedule ever so slightly as to maintain the network’s ratings strengths over it’s rivals. The premiere of AMERICA’S GOT TALENT on NBC will probably take some of the wind out of the CBS sails during the Summer season of reruns. Outside of THE VOICE and AMERICA’s GOT TALENT, NBC shows really lag in the ratings compared to the strong field of CBS shows. CBS is the top network because it’s the best managed of the networks, and the careful surgery over at CBS well proves why this network is at the top of the heap.

TBS Picks Up COUGAR TOWN From ABC

2012-05-12T04:29:06Z

Fans of the Courtney Cox comedy, COUGAR TOWN, can rest easy. TBS will pick the show up from ABC for a shortened 15 episode season, sparing the comedy cancellation. This also gives TBS another fairly proven entity to shore up their lineup of comedy programming. If fans of the show migrate over to TBS from ABC, then more power to the network as well. Let’s hope this satisfies everyone, and becomes a win-win for COUGAR TOWN fans as well as TBS. It gives the network more first time episodes of a show to air.

Flight Evidence Supports John Travolta In Sex Suit

2012-05-10T22:23:43Z

Important flight record evidence supports the claims of John Travolta that he was actually in NY at the time that a L.A. masseur claims that Travolta was involved in a claimed sexual assault and sexually inappropriate behavior. Further, a witness for John Travolta, Denise Wingate, was at his suite at the Greenwich Hotel for much of the day on some sort of business, according to a TMZ report. All of this knocking huge holes in the sexual assault claims in the lawsuit of the plaintiff. Travolta has threatened a countersuit because of the damaging nature of the story which seems to be quickly unraveling, making Travolta appear to be the victim here.

A Marriage Should Be Between A Man And A Woman, And Another Woman, And Another Woman, And Another Woman…..

2012-05-10T21:09:45Z

The gay community in Hollywood will no doubt be more supportive of President Obama in the face of his statements supporting gay marriage. On the flip side, his likely opponent, Mitt Romney, stated his support for traditional marriage. However, that opens up the issue of the Romney family history of polygamous Mormonism.

Mitt Romney’s own father, George W. Romney was actually born in Colania Dublan, Galeana, Chihuahua, Mexico, because the Romney’s were part of a polygamous Mormon sect that left the United States for the security of Mexico because polygamy was illegal in the United States. George W. Romney’s own parents were American citizens, however with their religious beliefs in polygamy illegal, they sought security in Mexico until political turmoil in Mexico forced George Romney’s family to come back to the United States to finally settle in Salt Lake City, Utah.

So does Mitt Romney support traditional marriage these days? Yes, but traditional marriage sure wasn’t always part of the Romney family. Romney’s own grandfather was from a Mormon generation who believed that marriage was between a man and a woman, and another woman, and another woman, and another woman, and another woman….

President Obama will no gain some stronger financial support from his views on gay marriage, and likely gain and lose some votes as well. And Mitt Romney might gain some support from Obama’s statements as well. But, that’s only if the Romney family history of polygamy doesn’t really become a discussion point in the news.