JCPenney

My review is really about the Sephora inside this JCPenney. I went by last night to make a small purchase and was happily helped by a lovely woman that assisted me with some I make up instruction. Basically I left with way more than what I expected. Excellent customer service.

I came to this location just to grab a few items at the Sephora within the JCPenney store. The store is currently going through a remodel, so parking was a little bit of a hassle. Nevertheless, I was hell-​bent on picking up a new face mask, so I didn’t mind the trek from the parking lot to do so. Once inside, though, I got completely lost. When I say the layout of the store is confusing, in both trying to find the Sephora, and then in trying to leave, I got lost for a good couple of minutes. I don’t know if the layout is applicable to all JCPenneys (I have never shopped at these department stores as a whole), but golly the setup is bad.
Okay, so the setup was bad, not a reason to knock more than one star, right? Wrong. Several store employees who were standing around chatting, saw that I was clearly quite confused and looking for something. I walked past 3 groups of employees who were not visibly working. Each group stopped their conversations to look at me, yet didn’t offer any assistance. I can see from other reviews, I’m not the only person who has gotten lost; I’d bet this is an everyday occurrence there. Yet out of ten employees, zero cared to stop their gossip long enough to point me on my way.
The reason the review got 3 stars –at all-​: the employees within the Sephora were WONDERFUL! I had recently run out of my favorite highlighter and wanted to try something new. I have a very fair complexion which can be hard to compliment. Both of the women working spent over half an hour with me to make sure I left with excellent products that look dazzling on my skin. Neither of them rushed me, or jumped to pushing the highest dollar products. Instead, they swatched the highest quality for my unique needs, and made recommendations based on that.
Will I go to this Sephora again? Probably not. The Sephora itself was fantastic, but I hate to give this JCPenney any of my business when it’s clear they care so little about their customers.

I never really stop and think much about department stores in terms of layout, organization, etc. until I run into one that just didn’t seem to have any logical arrangement.
I really didn’t enjoy shopping at this JCPenney, this was for women’s clothes.
Very crowded areas, jam packed racks that made it hard to get anything off without knocking down three more. Disorganized racks that made finding another size or color really hard. I probably would have spent more if I could have found more. I got simply what I needed that day and left. Many clothes were on wrong racks as well so you really didn’t have any clue if it was on sale or not.
The dressing rooms are falling apart and smell bad.
Maybe they will clean it up to be comparable to other JCPenneys and I can try this location again. If not, I will shop elsewhere or just shop JCP online.
It does have Sephora inside which is a huge plus for us West Side makeup lovers.

Nice, clean Penney. They recently finished a HUGE remodel and it shows. I’m a bit of a markdown troll and they always have a giant section devoted to newly discounted items. Score! Also, this particular location has a Sephora inside, which is great!

I had grown to dislike JCP as a whole recently: stores over-​crowded with merchandise, can’t find anyone to help when needed, etc. Frankly, It was starting to remind me of some of the discount retailers that I can’t stand to shop. While they still aren’t up to the higher standard they were when I worked for the company years ago (when departments had dedicated sales staff & registers and staff was required to dress professionally), I must admit that this trip pleased me. The store felt more open in many areas and there were a couple of staffers that asked if we needed assistance with anything. Still a work in progress as they are currently resetting the store, but definitely a step above where they were a few short months ago. The Plainfield location (for which this review covers) is located in the Metropolis Mall, and is the main anchor store (other than Dick’s Sporting Goods).

I really like JCPenney as a company. I have been shopping there for years as my mom and her mom are avid JCPenney patrons. But I am sorry to say this particular store is not the best that I’ve been to. The selection is so-​so, the service is almost nonexistent AND I discovered a hole in the women’s dressing rooms (see photos) that was not so cleverly taped over with excess wallpaper. Creepy.