Retailers lament what could have been

Former Apple executive Ron Johnson was pounded for his failed effort to replace price markdowns and giant discounts with set prices at J.C. Penney.

But while the backlash was fierce — Johnson, after all, was ultimately fired — some retail insiders believe that aspect of his turnaround plan actually had potential to do some good in the margin-squeezed industry. “I think a lot of people were really hoping for his strategy to work,” says Edward Carroll, a onetime marketing executive with the Bon-Ton stores and Saks, among other national chains. Carroll now runs St. Petersburg-based EPC Advisory Services, a retail consulting firm.

Carroll is also a senior adviser with the Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Global Retail Marketing Association, which planned to hold an executive leadership forum at the Don CeSar Hotel on St. Pete Beach May 2-4. Stephanie Fischer, president and CEO of the association, agrees with Carroll, that Johnson's plan could have shaken up a pricing structure in dire need of it.

That pricing structure, argued Johnson, forced J.C. Penney to constantly chase bargain hunters in discount purgatory. “Retailers were really rooting for (Johnson),” Fischer tells Coffee Talk.

Of course, both Fischer and Carroll admit the strategy failed primarily because those bargain-chasing customers balked when the sales and markdowns were removed. And Fischer says the one business axiom that still wins the day in retail above all others is “the customer is always right.”