Pinching Penney's: My two cents

The New York Times' Cintra Wilson, a freelancer who shared the Critical Shopper column with Mike Albo, wrote a scathing review of the newly-opened J.C. Penney store in Manhattan ("Playing to the Middle" in the August 13, 2009 edition) that drew the wrath of both Penney execs and many Times readers.

Wilson's screed was not only against the retailer, but against customers. Careful to include the information that she is size 2, she wrote:
"AND herein lies the genius of J. C. Penney: It has made a point of providing clothing for people of all sizes (a strategy, company officials have said, to snatch business from nearby Macy’s).

To this end, it has the most obese mannequins I have ever seen. They probably need special insulin-based epoxy injections just to make their limbs stay on. It’s like a headless wax museum devoted entirely to the cast of 'Roseanne'."

Flooded with mail, including plenty of hate letters, Wilson published an apology (in a three-version sequence) on her blog.The most recent:
"Because of my personal beliefs as a Buddhist, I very much regret that my J.C. Penney article in the Times caused any wounded feelings whatsoever, particularly to people who already feel they take more than their share of abuse from our very shallow and ridiculous society. I was not sensitive enough to this, and the extent to which my article exacerbated these feelings is a very real failure on my end for which I sincerely apologize. - Cintra"

Three letters to the Times' Public Editor about Wilson's review were published in the Sunday Times on Sunday, August 30.

One was particularly affecting, from Agnes H. Allison of El Cerrrito CA:
"... Ms Wilson obviously belongs to the younger, hip Manhattan group of working men and women... who cannot imagine ever getting older, being post-menopausal and retired.

Maybe after retirement she will be one of those social types who flit from luncheon to cocktail party, at age 60-plus, cramming her aching feet into stiletto heels, getting botox injections and trying- without a lot of success- to remain forever 40. Most of the rest of us have accepted the inevitable.

Maybe, just maybe, this discussion will call attention to the fact that middle-aged women are on their own when it comes to clothes. We are ignored and disdained, hardly worth a designer's time or effort..."

Diana Witt, from Manhattan, recalled an earlier era:
"...Cintra Wilson's piece is generational. She assumes that nothing like J.C. Penney ever existed in Manhattan, when in fact for many years, 14th Street was a mecca for places offering similar merchandise...

If Ms Wilson truly thinks that somehow Penney's is more out of place in Manhattan than those obscenely overpriced shops currently occupying Spring Street or the Upper East Side, then she knows nothing about the history of retail clothing in Manhattan, particularly before she was born.

I don't care that she is snarky. That's fashion reporting. I do mind that she didn't do her homework."

The Penney's debacle evoked memories. Penney's was my first employer, at sixteen. Every Friday evening and Saturday, I sold ladies' lingerie, mostly to women.

But the customer I'll never forget was a Native American man who shyly asked me to help him choose a nylon housecoat for his wife, who was recovering from surgery. We settled on a long floral coat, size 20. He bore that box away as reverently as a La Perla negligee.

It was my first moment of working pride, both for my role and the product. He bought a nice, washable garment, made in his country by International Ladies Garment Workers union labour, for cash (or for no additional charge, layaway), and backed by a guarantee.

The last time I was in Penney's was maybe five years ago, in Florida, with my 95 year old mother, who depended on them to stock her cotton bras and white percale sheets.

Why castigate a retailer for offering a range of sizes, on mannequins that show garments as they would look on so many women?