JC Penney Sale Prices Fake? Employee Bob Blatchford Fired For Exposing Practice

Are JC Penney sale prices fake? That’s the accusation of former employee Bob Blatchford, who went onto the Today Show to expose these shady practices and now has lost his job because of being a whistleblower.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, with JC Penney sales plummeting over 33 locations were closed earlier this year. The ailing department store retailer was even forced to borrow about $850 million almost a year ago in order to keep their company afloat.

With all the pressure facing them they’ve tried several sales gimmicks. The first one was to get rid of sales completely while claiming the prices were always low. That didn’t go over too well with shoppers, with revenues dropping by an astonishing $4.3 billion, so the JC Penny sales were brought back.

But now Bob Blatchford is telling us that the new JC Penney sale prices strategy is to trick shoppers:

“I saw a lot of pricing teams going through the store, raising the prices, mostly doubling — towels and clothing. Then they would go on sale, and they wouldn’t always go on sale for 50 percent off. Not only was it a fake sale, but they were actually paying more than they would have been previously. I don’t think Penney’s will survive if they keep doing this.”

Unfortunately for Bob, his job did not survive his revelation of JC Penney’s dirty little secret. Two days later he was fired from his position as a custom decorating studio coordinator. JC Penney even contested his unemployment benefit claims and filed an arbitration claim, which, according to Blatchford, was done in order to prevent him from speaking out further against the company. But company officials claim their former employee has an “unbalanced vendetta” and is seeking the “love of media attention.”

If the JC Penney sale prices are indeed fake then it’s possible they’re leaving themselves open to class action lawsuits. The Federal Trade Commission says a false bargain is when prices on a product are artificially inflated before a sale in order to market the supposed discount.

The lost of shopper trust is apparently worth a whole lot more than any money they have saved from such practices. In 2013, JC Penney is said to have lost $985 million, which has the company scrambling to figure out how to lure consumers back into the department store.

What do you think about allegations about JC Penney sale prices being fake?