Word: penney
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Earlier this month, J.C. Penney learned the hard way just how powerful the home-schooling movement has become. Penney's had recently started selling a T shirt that wickedly crystallized many people's assumptions about the movement: HOME SKOOLED, giggles the shirt, which also depicts a trailer home. The folks at Penney's say they meant no harm--they didn't even design the T, which had become popular in other stores first. But they yanked it from the shelves Aug. 8 after enraged missives poured in from home-schooling families, some of whom threatened a boycott...
...Penney's should have known better. Over the past decade, the ranks of families home schooling have grown dramatically. According to a new federal report, at least 850,000 students were learning at home in 1999, the most recent year studied; some experts believe the figure is actually twice that. As recently as 1994, the government estimated the number at just 345,000. True, even the largest estimates still put the home schooled at only 4% of the total K-12 population--but that would mean more kids learn at home than attend all the public schools in Alaska, Delaware...
...mini-replica of the robot Voltron ($29.99) has completely sold out since its release in 1999, and each of the first 12 Masters of the Universe--including He-Man, Man-at-Arms and the evil Skeletor ($10-$25 each)--has all but disappeared from the shelves of J.C. Penney and Toys "R" Us since Mattel re-released them. Demand in the U.S. for replicas of Transformers, among them the upstart Hot Rod ($45) and the diabolical pistol Megatron ($90-$110), has prompted importers to buy them off the shelves in Honshu and sell them to retail stores in U.S. malls...
...Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a team of researchers is working on a "hypersoap" that could revolutionize the way we shop. It takes the idea of TV product placement to its absolute extreme. Touch any item on the screen around the actors and you get product info. Necklace: J.C. Penney, $35. Tissue: Kleenex, $1.99. Book: Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte, $25. You can't get any more interactive than that. These people are creating the future, but will the future show...
Slumping consumer confidence and declining retail sales have already taken a job toll. At Southern University, a traditionally black school in Baton Rouge, La., retailers J.C. Penney and Mervyn's have cut their interviews by two-thirds. "The options for students are becoming more limited," says Kris Tiefenthaler, the director for college relations at Sears Roebuck. But retailers have high churn rates, so Sears--which recently announced store closings and layoffs--is sticking to plans to hire 200 new grads this year...