J.C. Penney un-pops its self-service concept store

J.C. Penney rolled up its red carpets on Times Square last week.

The J.C. Penney Experience Store at 1 Times Square in New York City closed on Sunday, March 26. The pop-up store debuted on Oscar Night on the first three floors of the hallowed former New York Times tower, for which Times Square is named. Customers could purchase inventory only via kiosk.

The temporary store promoted online shopping, at JCP.com, on 22 EasyPoint kiosks, manufactured by NCR Corp. J.C. Penney's IT department built its own software, a modification of the retail platform designed by Netkey.

The 15,000-square-foot store included 18 plasma displays, surrounded by a huge duo-tone portrait of each featured designer. And mannequins modeling J.C. Penney's latest styles surrounded the EasyPoint units scattered throughout the store.

Outside the towering plate glass windows, New York's famous lines of taxis rushed by.

The sales associates, all clad smartly in black to match the black and red décor, were actually supervisors from near-by J.C. Penney stores. Tracy Pouncy, ordinarily a training supervisor at the company's Bronx store, worked the home furnishings floor. She said about 800 customers, mostly tourists, frequented the store daily. She said the kiosks kept traffic moving quickly in the store.

First floor: The J.C. Penney experience store featured a limited on-site inventory in a setting that was half loft, half art gallery, making inventory available for sale only via kiosks. (Photos by Bryan Harris)

"Transactions here are just so brief because they don't spend a lot of time looking at things," Pouncy said. "If I don't have it here, they look on the kiosk."

She said few customers needed help using the kiosks. Of those who asked questions, the most common was, "Where do you ship?" The second most common: "Where is your nearest (normal) location?"

"Maybe once a day I'll get someone who actually needs help (with a kiosk)," Pouncy said.

As for actually using the kiosks, customers gave mixed reactions. While some liked the new technology, others voiced disappointment. J.C. Penney told USA Today it is refocusing marketing efforts toward adult women of middle to high income. The end results surprised Slawka O'Brien, a visiting insurance investigator from Manchester, England.

Skimpy inventory: Using NCR EasyPoint kiosks and Netkey software, J.C. Penney replaced its traditional racks with modern, minimalist displays.

"I've never seen anything like it," O'Brien said. "You're not faced with rows and rows of things. I just walked in. I'm still getting used to it. It's more visual than going through racks of things. It cuts down on staff as well."

Meanwhile, June Lefferty, a caterer from the West Scottish Isles, was less than awe-struck by the self-service technology.

"It's not what we thought it would be at all," Lefferty said. "We thought there would be a lot more clothes on display. We saw an ad on TV in our hotel room. It's a disappointment."

J.C. Penney public relations coordinator Brenda Romero said the kiosks were less about creating a self-service environment and more about promoting the company's Web site, JCP.com, which she said totaled $1 billion in sales as of January 2006.

"We are testing self-service kiosks in about three stores right now," Romero said. "We're testing how shoppers are reacting to the availability of ordering merchandise online from within the store. More than anything, it's just about creating an easy and exciting shopping experience, whether the customers shops through the store, through the catalog or online."