Lex_JC Penney 成本控制的極限

JC Penney走下坡路Lex_JC Penney英國《金融時報》

Twenty per cent off sounds appealing to shoppers. Not to investors. On Tuesday, the JC Penney department store chain reported that same-store sales had dropped by nearly a fifth from the year before. It is hard to recall another like-for-like decline of this magnitude, at any company. Even at Gap, an industry problem child, same-store sales bottomed at -14 per cent in the recessionary 2008. Penney shares tanked yesterday.
打八折對消費者而言很有吸引力。投資者就不同了。週二，連鎖百貨公司JC Penney報告稱，同店銷售額較去年下降了近五分之一。無論對哪一家公司而言，這種幅度的同店銷售額下滑都是罕見的。就連業內的“問題少年”蓋普(Gap)公司，在2008年經濟衰退期間的同店銷售額也在下降14%的水平上觸底。 Penney公司股價週三重挫。


The issue has little to do with the environment for mid- or low-priced retailers in the US, though. Same-store sales at Macy's and Kohl's, also mid-tier department stores, were slightly positive and flat, respectively, in the first quarter. Off-price clothier TJX reported like-for- like sales up 8 per cent.
然而，這一問題跟美國中低端零售商所處的大環境無甚關聯。在同樣是中檔百貨公司的梅西(Macy's)和科爾(Kohl's)，第一季度同店銷售額分別出現小幅正增長和持平。減價服裝銷售商TJX則報告8%的同店銷售額增長。


The issue is the strategic changes instituted by new boss Ron Johnson, who previously ran Apple's retail operations. His decision to abolish sales commissions has attracted attention, but, like his cost-cutting initiatives and planned store revamps, was instituted too recently to explain the drop off. The culprit seems to be the move from constantly changing promotions to a few stable price tiers. Shoppers appear to have liked the old disorder.
問題是出在新老闆羅恩•約翰遜(Ron Johnson)推行的策略轉變上，他之前曾負責蘋果(Apple)公司的零售運營。他作出的取消銷售佣金的決定引起了人們注意，但就像他削減成本和翻新門店的方案一樣，這些措施出爐時間不長，無法解釋業績下滑的現象。罪魁禍首似乎是從不斷變化的促銷活動轉向幾個穩定的價格層次。消費者似乎更喜歡過去的無序格局。


It is hard to forecast if shoppers will warm to an environment where pricing is predictable and the staff isn't pushy. We know, however, that there have been few, if any, successful transformations of ageing retail brands. The disastrous turnround efforts at Sears/Kmart prove that cost control is not nearly enough. But cuts can keep a company alive long enough to find a merchandise formula that works. Encouragingly, Gap has recently started to churn out positive same-store results, after years of negative sales driven by lousy fashion. Only very astute financial management protected Gap's profits. The JC Penney turnround, if it comes at all, is likely to take a long time, too.
很難預測消費者會否對定價可以預見、員工不急著推銷的環境更感興趣。然而我們所知道的是，過氣零售品牌中，極少（如果確實存在的話）有轉型成功的。西爾斯/卡馬特(Sears/Kmart)災難般的轉型努力證明，僅靠成本控制是遠遠不夠的。但削減成本可以使公司存活足夠久，以便找到有效的商業模式。令人鼓舞的是，在糟糕的時尚設計帶來多年銷售負增長之後，Gap最近開始實現積極的同店銷售業績。全靠非常精明的財務管理才保住了Gap公司的利潤。 JC Penney公司如能最終扭轉局面的話，也可能會經歷很長時間。