Carole Sloan — Furniture Today
Wants to make retailer easy to shop


PLANO, Texas — Furniture will play a role in the growth of JCPenney’s home business, according to Jeffrey Allison, the retailer’s new executive vice president, general merchandise manager, home and custom decorating.

“We are looking at store counts and opportunities to put furniture into more of our mall stores,” Allison said in his first interview since he assumed the post on Dec. 1, replacing longtime Penney executive Charles Chinni, who has announced his retirement.

“We have a great home business,” Allison said. “It’s never easy to follow one of the legends of the industry like Charlie, but he developed a very good team. My job objective is to sustain it and take the business to a new level.”

JCPenney has about 170 furniture and bedding departments in its stores. A figure for 2013 sales was not yet available, but Furniture/Today estimated the company’s 2012 furniture, bedding and decorative accessories sales at $760 million — ranking 16th among all U.S. retailers. 

Allison said the company’s objectives are to grow its key businesses, improve the customer shopping experience and continue opening stores, mainly off-mall sites. Executives said last spring they expected to open 50 units a year.

Off-mall stores aren’t slated to have furniture, however, because the stores are smaller than mall sites. But the company also is remodeling many of its mall stores, which could open opportunities for furniture.

“Furniture has come a long way and definitely has a place in the stores,” said Allison. “We’re looking at the emergence of the Chris Madden collection and the role it has played in furniture,” he said, adding that Penney hopes to “bring Chris Madden to a new level of sales.”

But he also said the company “will not walk away from national brands and exclusive brands.”

Responding to a question of whether Penney has dipped too low in pricing in the highly competitive home marketplace, he said the store is making sure customers have the “smart” prices they want.

“We are constantly working on the price/value equation and we build quality into the products at smart prices — in private brands, national and exclusive brands,” he said. “And this is not necessarily the lowest price in the market.”

He also said a key goal is to make it easier for consumers to shop at JCPenney, whether in stores, via the catalog or on the Internet.

In part, he said, the store is working to boost cross-channel sales. Initial moves include new point-of-sale programs in stores, which have reduced the steps to connecting customers to either the Internet or catalog for reference or purchase have been reduced to five steps from 25.

Allison has been at JCPenney for six years, most recently as executive vice president of planning and allocation. He said that experience has made him sensitive to how the store’s systems operate.

“Having just come out of that sector, we built it from scratch. There were no central systems,” he said.

Another strategic imperative is to use direct imports in the best way, Allison said.

“I don’t have a formula about the percentage of direct imports we will have in relation to the total. The ability to drive direct imports is important as part of our total business model but it doesn’t mean we will abandon importers or domestic suppliers,” he said.