[micahgoulart]

I think the biggest problem Ron Johnson faced is that with Apple, the products sell themselves and are exclusive to that retail store. Customers come in not needing to be sold on it... just wanting to see it in person before purchasing since buzz around the launches and commercials do the selling part.

JC Penney however, does not have exclusive products and customers don't necessarily come in knowing what they want to buy but might need to be sold on a product.

That affects pricing as well. Apple can do one price without discounts without a problem since you can't find their products anywhere else for much cheaper, mostly just online retailers without sales tax.

JC Penney's products can be found in many other stores and thus pricing needs to be flexible to draw people in for sales.

Thus the huge drop in sales.

[guan]

I don’t think this is true for all visitors to Apple Stores. A good percentage of Apple Store shoppers do come in knowing exactly what they want to look at or buy—the category you’re describing—but I’ve seen a lot come in to browse and taking up quite a lot of staff time with questions. For example, they may know that they they’re interested in an iPod, but they have not necessarily made a purchase decision or know which one to get.

I think what the commercials and buzz around Apple products (and the fact that the Apple Store is the place to find a full selection of Apple products) is to convince people to come into the store in the first place and look around.

[ajross]

Apple products are sold at lots of retail outlets; the Apple Store retail locations aren't exclusive vendors. It's true they have far more control over pricing and product presentation than JC Penney, but it's not total.

[saraid216]

I wonder how many people actually know that, though. No one I know talks about going anywhere except an Apple Store to service an Apple product, and no one I know seems to consider going to another store to buy an Apple product.