Well OK, we’ve seen this story play out many times before. You need a great team to in order to transform the business, so executive team building is the obvious first thing to do. But ultimately, the challenges remain — can this new team take a beaten and battered brand and bring it back to life? We can always be hopeful.

Good appointments. Good people. Good skills. Absolutely rotten retailer. On the ground there is virtually nothing that looks good about J.C. Penney. Stores are worse than ever. Assortments are unfocused and bland. There are very few solid initiatives. With the consumer economy set to tighten, I just cannot see a path forward for J.C. Penney. That said, I wish everyone well and I hope that they prove me wrong!

It’s 2022, and J.C. Penney’s main competitors (from Target to Kohl’s to Macy’s) were ramping up their digital strategies a decade ago — while J.C. Penney was stumbling under a series of management changes and bad decisions. Technically, it’s “never too late” but Penney has lost a lot of omnichannel ground while at the same time shrinking its physical footprint. (And, as panelists have noted, the Sephora loss is a big one.) Without any direct knowledge of the new talent acquisitions, it’s hard to see how long Simon will be patient with a challenging turnaround.

I wish the new team well and truly hope they are successful. I also have three words of (albeit unsolicited) advice: assortment, assortment, assortment.

It’s going to take some pretty bold moves and new partnerships to turn J.C. Penney around. Kohl’s (surprisingly) showed that it can be done. Let’s see some swashbuckling!

Things are about to get interesting at J.C. Penney and its next chapter shouldn’t be compared with traditional department store dynamics. J.C. Penney’s diverse new leadership, its plug-and-play brand portfolio alliance with Authentic Brands, and Simon and Brookfield’s retail development involvement are unprecedented. Lest we forget, J.C. Penney was one of the first (the first?) retailers to achieve a $1 billion e-commerce business. Of course, since that time, J.C. Penney has veered off in many disjointed directions. Now it has the opportunity to regroup and reclaim a better version of its former glory. Retail needs a strong middle player and I wouldn’t bet against J.C. Penney at this stage, even if it takes a village to pull it off.

Turning around J.C. Penney is like turning around a battleship, no matter the reduced footprint or renewed focus on younger customers.

The relationship between J.C. Penney and SPG and ABG offers some intriguing possibilities, along with J.C. Penney’s roster of proprietary brands. So they have plenty of opportunity to differentiate themselves. But a bunch of proprietary brands hanging out on four-ways and rounders isn’t going to cut it these days, no matter how many coupons are offered. And customers don’t care about industry press releases. So let’s get a “store of the future” up and running and see what mall-based department store retailing can stand for now that we are 22 years into the new century.

Like Glen Close in Fatal Attraction, the story of J.C. Penney returns around NRF with hope. I wish them well.

Mr. Rosen and the new execs are talented, no doubt, but I’m bearish on the J.C. Penney brand and its ability to garner consumer interest. I wish them well and hope they turn this around, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Sounds to me like J.C. Penney may have internalized the wrong lessons from its failures. None of these backgrounds makes me hopeful because none suggest they understand how to accept J.C. Penney for what it is today (a weak player with loyalty from a certain group of customers and an operation based on the no longer useful model of a department store) in order to move forward. J.C. Penney cannot become strong by airlifting in foreign programs – it needs to start from where it is today.

The reason you see Abercrombie or Victoria’s Secret starting to turn around is predominantly because of consumer perception of the brand, not the executives. J.C. Penney has the same issue, only in a reverse direction. Just one question: have you ever, I mean ever, heard a Millennial or Gen Zer even mention the name J.C. Penney before? Sure, they might get some pops from obvious improvements, including talent, but at the end of the day half the people in the country wouldn’t set foot in a J.C. Penney. It’s great they’re upgrading, but 25 years ago would’ve been the time for a re-do.

Clearly J.C. Penney is investing in some high powered talent, and that is always good. But they are being asked to do the near impossible – transform a moribund brand (J.C. Penney) in a declining category (traditional middle class consumer department stores). Making modifications to the existing model just won’t be enough. This is going to take a literal transformation because: a.) the stores are tired, to put it charitably; b.) malls are in trouble, again, to put it charitably; c.) the traditional target consumer is aging out/dying out; d.) previous managements have failed to transform the company enough to build up a viable, sustainable, new customer base; e.) the competition is simply very, very good. This is an impressive lineup of top retail executives and I wish them well, but color me skeptical.

Great people, talented team, inspiring vision, but time and the operational environment are not on their side. I sincerely do wish them luck. However when this latest and valiant attempt fails, it won’t be for lack of trying or skill; the deck is stacked against them.

Now that Sears is, for all intents and purposes, gone, J.C. Penney is the poster child for the “collapse of the middle” that has been unfolding for the past 20 years. Trying to be a little bit of everything to a little bit of everybody with a concentration in a format that continues to contract is a losing strategy. Everything they have done (or can do) is merely kicking the can down the road. I will assume the leaders that have joined are absolutely top-notch, but the train left the station on a possible transformation many years ago. There is not enough money, nor talent, nor, most importantly, time to turn this most unremarkable retailer around. Dead brand walking.

J.C. Penney is following the script of most struggling retailers: press releases, new management, new merchandising, etc. However the question remains, “what is J.C. Penney’s differential advantage?” Until it develops a sustainable competitive advantage, it runs the risk of winding up like Sears, “where America used to shop.” I wish them well, however.

It feels like this is an annual discussion. Can the “new” team at J.C. Penney turn the ship? The fundamentals at J.C. Penney are really bad. The brand is battered and customer perception, well. Turning J.C. Penney around, I suspect, will require more capital investment than the company is actually worth. Event then, there is no real guarantee of success. I understand Simon’s focus on keeping an anchor alive for the regional centers but, honestly, I don’t have a lot of confidence that this will be a success.

Make it simple — too little too late. Why would you want or need to shop at J.C. Penney’s?

If only changing the c-suite could change your brand archetype. J.C. Penney is J.C. Penney. While we always want to root for retail transformation, this retailer shares the same mental space as Sears and Kmart. They are likely on the same trajectory too, but these new pedigree hires might slow the pace. Might.