Jill Soltau is making a long-shot bid at J.C. Penney Co. to do what her predecessors couldn’t: uncover what customers really want from the ailing department-store chain, Bloomberg News reported. Soltau joined the company last October with the stock in a free fall that has yet to reverse. During her second day on the job as the company’s first female chief executive officer, Soltau commissioned a survey that came back with some telling findings: Customers are tied to their digital devices, they care about fashion and want to forge an emotional connection with the places they shop. Within the first six months of her tenure, she identified 18 of the department-store locations for closure and exited the major appliance business, which had been reintroduced by prior CEO Marvin Ellison in 2016. She also moved most furniture sales to online only. “It hasn’t been a great shopping experience, I think largely because the company had lost its sight on doing what’s right for the customer,” said Soltau, 52. Customers have been “confused” and “not sure who we are, who we’re trying to be,” she said. S&P Global Ratings downgraded the retailer last month, citing “growing risk” that it will pursue a debt restructuring
in the next 12 months. It has close to $4 billion of total debt, including bonds, revolving loans and a term loan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The New York Stock Exchange told the company this summer that it was at risk for delisting if it couldn’t get its share price higher.