Kohl's

Coles is considered the largest department store chain in the United States, with over 1,100 locations spread across the country. Over the past 60 plus years, they have grown their customer base to over 60 million people, w They claim that 80% of Americans live wit The name of the store comes from Max Kohl, an immigrant from Poland who technically started the company over 100 years ago when he opened a modest grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Over time, that one store grew into a sizable chain in the area, and in 1962, he opened Imagine that he saw potential in the market for low priced, everyday non grocery items, Given the fact that the first ever Kmart, Walmart, and Target had all opened earlier that year. About a decade later, the Kohl family sold the business, w After about another decade, the two chains were separated. The grocery stores slowly faded away until they were shut down entirely in 2003, w In 1992, the Kohl's department stores were still entirely confined wit By 2003, they were officially considered a national brand when they made a big push into California by opening 28 stores in the region. Then, in the 2010s, Kohl's mostly stopped expanding. After an aggressive decades-long growth phase, they really slowed down with the new store openings and their sales stabilized to right around 18-19 billion dollars per year. They started distributing a dividend to their shareholders in 2012 that was increased each year throughout the decade, essentially providing them value through the distribution of profits rather than reinvesting them to grow the business. In early 2020, I made a video about Kohl's, explaining why they were so successful, because up until that point, they were one of the biggest retail success stories, and I would've never thought I would be making t Unfortunately for Kohl's, a lot has changed over these past five years, to a point where almost every key statistic is concerning. Sales, for example, have been declining. If you exclude the year of the pandemic, they are currently at their lowest level since 2006. And holiday sales for 2024, typically the busiest and most important period for any retailer, were actually lower than the 2020 holiday sales. To go along with that, as you might expect, profits have been significantly lower. They've even been losing money some years, w At the start of 2025, they announced that they would be closing a distribution center in California, along with 27 underperforming stores, w Later in that same month, they announced that they were laying off 10% of their corporate workforce, again, not the biggest concern, but more evidence that t Potentially the most drastic evidence of their downfall is their stock price, w In 2020, they lowered their dividend for the first time, w Actually, that year, when the stock price was looking much better, it was being reported that the company might be taken private for about $8 or $9 billion. Well, that deal never happened, and Kohl's value on the stock market has since fallen to under $1 billion. Overall, after spending decades as one of the biggest, most beloved, most stable retailers, Kohl's has been struggling. So for this video, I've identified what I believe to be five of the biggest reasons behind these struggles, starting off with inventory management, something that we might not think about too much as cons T And then if that happens, you don't have any room to store the new styles. On the other end, if you don't have enough stuff, or if you have the wrong stuff, then you are losing out on sales and aggravating customers because you do not have what they are looking for. It can be a tricky balancing act, and over the past few years, Kohl's has been widely criticized over their inventory management. Particularly in 2022, when even their new CEO the following year, Tom Kingsbury, said their inventory levels got out of control. They had way too much stuff, so they had to sell a bunch of it at a discount to make room for the new stuff, w He then tried to simplify inventory management, partially by cutting back on petite sizes, w He later admitted the decision was short-sighted and said, we thought we can do more with a lot less, and that didn't work out for us. Recently, they've been adjusting their inventory strategy in response to tariffs, so it has been an ongoing issue for them. My next reason be Recently, Kohl's has been Well, when I made that previous video, Michelle Gass was the company's CEO, and she was the one in charge when everyt In 2022, she was replaced by Tom Kingsbury, who I mentioned earlier, and then he was replaced by Ashley Buchanan in early 2025. That one ended up being a bit of a scandal, because he was fired only a few months later for a conflict of interest with one of their vendors. According to the Wall Street Journal, there was a romantic relationship involved, and he gave her highly unusual terms in her favor, which really sounds As I make t My next reason on the list is external factors, which I realize is even more general, but we have to acknowledge that Kohl's has been fighting in a tough environment, having to react to tariffs, interest rates, lower cons The pandemic hurt them for obvious reasons, and they have still not recovered to the levels that they were at before it. You could even argue that it sort of sparked their inventory issues. Aside from all of that, and potentially the biggest external factor has been online shopping, it has been a major issue for most physical retailers, particularly department stores. I mean, most of them are nowhere near the level they used to be, including Sears, Macy's, JCPenney. One thing that sets Kohl's apart is that they are mostly located outside of shopping malls, un In 2017, they started working with Amazon, where you could return stuff that you bought on their site at a Kohl'store. In 2020, they started the idea there was that Sephora would attract new, younger customers into Kohl's, who would then buy merchandise from Kohl's once they were already there. And by the way, when you consider that these sales n They have also transitioned away from private label brands, the stuff that you can only find in Kohl'stores, In 2013, private labels accounted for most of their business, and they have since fallen to less than a t And I will admit that these have all been creative and effective ways to lure people into the store, but probably not the most effective in creating loyal customers, leading me right into the next reason, losing their identity. Simply put, 10 years ago, most of the people walking into Kohl's were shopping for today, they're walking into buy national brands that are sold at a million other stores, they'returning Amazon packages that they could do elsewhere, and they're buying somet For Kohl's, the core demograp More than other groups of people, they're the ones saving up the Kohl's cash and using it to buy stuff for their home and for their family. Well, Sephora is generally not a store for moms, it is a much younger and trendier customer base. They actually remove the jewelry displays to make room for it, which, I don't know, I feel In 2025, in They have since reinstalled many of those jewelry displays, acknowledging that it may have been a misstep, but I t Is it a trendy store or a family store? Is it meant for older people or younger people? Because by trying to do all of it, they have alienated their existing customers w Finally, my last reason be From what I can tell, a lot of it originated from stock repurchases, starting around 2006. That year, they sold their credit card business to J. P. Morgan Chase for $1. 5 billion, saying that they would use the proceeds to open new locations and to buy back shares of stock. They quickly completed a $2 billion repurchase program before announcing a new $2. 5 billion repurchase program over the next few years. And I will remind you that today, shares of Kohl'stock have less value than they did back then. Meanw Over the past decade, they have paid almost $3 billion interest, reducing the profits each year and making it difficult to spend money on improvements that could potentially revitalize t Let me know in the comments, what do you t If you are one of those 60 million customers, what do you And also, do you agree with my list of reasons be And finally, I have to ask, what do you see for the future? What does Kohl's have to do to make a comeback and will they be successful in doing it? And any other thoughts you have about Kohl's, leave them in the comments. I'd