JCPenney — No Sales Strategy

JCPenney's everyday-low-pricing pivot remains a textbook case of ignoring customer psychology, less reckless than #7 MoviePass's cash incineration but nearly as swift in damage. CEO Ron Johnson eliminated coupons and sales events in 2012, replacing them with flat pricing that his team calculated would save $0.12 per item in overhead. Instead, revenue cratered by 25% in one year—a $4.2 billion loss—as coupon-hunting traffic dropped 30% monthly. The strategy alienated 40% of core customers who came exclusively for discounts, causing a 95% drop in social media mentions of JCPenney. Within 17 months, the board restored sales events, but the company never fully recovered, proving a 25% annual revenue drop is 5x worse than the average retail misstep.