Column: Something About Nothing

Did ya hear the screams? I loved the screams. They made me laugh. Other people hated the screams. It made them want to scream.

I am referring to the new J.C. Penney Co. commercials on television. The ads were announcing that on Feb. 1, J.C. Penney is doing away with sales and permanently slashing their prices.

When I first heard this I almost screamed in excitement, too. Sales frustrate me. I shop sales, but I am always frustrated because the next day it seems there was always a better sale, and I missed it. I often wondered why stores didn’t just permanently slash prices since they always had a sale.

I have many times thought about how much simpler life would be in the grocery store if they would lower the prices and forget about the sales and the coupons. It would make it easier to budget and less time consuming in our busy world.

I do have to wonder if customers are going to embrace J.C. Penney’s new vision. I also have to wonder if it works for the department store chain if other stores will follow its lead.

Women love a good sale. We plot and plan on what store gives us the sale at the best price. Our hearts beat faster as we battle others to get the sale goods before they are all gone.

I think men have even gone the sale route especially with the big-ticket electronic items. What would happen if things were priced right, and there were never any sales?

I suspect men would not miss them as much as women. Most of the men I know who venture into a store know what they want, go straight to that aisle, pick it up and purchase it. The men I know do not window shop as much as the women that I know.

I used to be the coupon queen in the ’70s and ’80s when I had to purchase groceries for my family. I did not buy any item without a coupon. The grocery store clerk would always have to call the manager because my coupons exceeded what the register would accept, and they needed approval from their manager. I could be the coupon queen at that time because I was a stay-at-home mom, and I had the time to clip coupons and plan my shopping trips. It was also a necessity.

I have neither the patience nor the time any more to sit for hours cutting and planning, although it appears with the prices being what they are I may need to do that again.

My kids clip coupons and use them. They are busy families but need the savings. How much easier would their lives and the lives of other families be if grocery stores and other stores did what J.C. Penney is doing? Budgeting for families would be much easier.

These days there are extreme couponing websites. Again I suspect these coupon people would miss the thrill of good sales and good savings.

There is a high to a good sale. The shoppers who get a high from shopping and then add a good sale can be elevated to happiness for weeks or at least until the next good sale comes along.

It will be interesting in the next few weeks to see what happens at J.C. Penney Co. Will the shoppers flee for the high of a good sale elsewhere or will J.C. Penney start a new trend for the future?

“Shopping is a woman thing. It’s a contact sport, like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death and the ecstasy of the purchase.” — Erma Bombeck

 

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send email to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.