Kohls

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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storewanderer
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Kohls

Post by storewanderer »

Went into Kohls tonight. Kohls looks to be in serious trouble. They have removed numerous merchandise displays throughout the store. The displays they do have are stocked, but by no means full. The clearance areas are big long racks (Ross like); women's area is about 1/3 dedicated to these clearance racks now with like 6 such aisles, plus big center wall space for it; men's had a lot less clearance, only two long aisles there. I think all of that clearance in women's is from the brands they are discontinuing and that stuff previously took up the space there as full price merchandise. It is just odd to be dedicating so much space to clearance items during the holiday shopping season; usually you save that for after the holiday season... the clearance racks are overflowing. Then there is a large space between women's and kid's, not sure what it used to have, but it is just an empty carpet space now, like an entire section is missing. This area at one time last year had the Amazon returns set up there, but that was set up back in the middle of the bedding department this time. They seem really light on winter items; hardly any coats, gloves, etc.

Of the numerous merchandise fixtures, tables, and displays they have removed they have stuck them all into the closed fitting rooms, which I guess is a good storage space. Every single fitting room was stuffed to the brim with these empty fixtures, tables, and displays they have emptied of product and removed from the sales floor.

In looking at Kohls clearance items they seem to not be marking down as aggressively as before; 70% off seemed to be about as good as it got. Nothing was 80-90% off and a lot of this stuff has been there for months. Maybe this is deliberate as they have so much less regular price inventory, to not be in as big of a hurry to get rid of clearance items, to add some mix to the store.

This store was clean and orderly, but compared to Macy's, does not look ready for a holiday rush at all. Also skeleton staffing; only saw 4 employees total in the place (3 around the one open door, and 1 back at the return area). Macy's is in much better shape as far as products go, and very merchandised and ready for holiday traffic, at least based on what I see in Reno/Sacramento of Macy's.

It looks like Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, Burlington, etc. are basically putting the final death blows for these department stores. Those 4 stores are absolutely packed with customers, have been ever since they reopened last summer, and the customers are buying bagfulls of stuff. I don't like any of those stores, but I guess I better start.

Will be interesting to see how things work out for them this holiday season. I guess it is possible they have all this open space and they will put items out in the space in the next few days.
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Re: Kohls

Post by pseudo3d »

Kohl's always struck me as the "modern" department store, very few mall stores (at least where I live, I know they occupied some Mervyn's stores out west), displays that aren't fancy but weren't falling apart, decent kitchen selection, etc.

It kind of reminded me of Sears but without the hard lines, slightly more upscale, and in way better shape. Even before the pandemic, their subletting scheme was a bad sign of things to come.
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Re: Kohls

Post by Brian Lutz »

Kohl's seems to have taken over the niche (Not quite as upscale as the local/regional chains that eventually got taken over by Macy's, but at least you're not buying clothes at Walmart) that used to be filled primarily by Mervyn's. In fact, in many cases they directly took over former Mervyn's locations after that chain closed down. If Kohl's and JCPenney go down I don't see anyone else filling that niche anytime soon.

About a year ago, Kohl's started setting up stations in their stores to accept returns for Amazon, and has been pretty aggressively handing out "20% off one item" coupons to customers that bring in Amazon returns. I suppose that's one way to drive traffic in the stores, but at the same time the coupons have so many exemptions on them that they are just about useless for anything but house brand products, and even those seem to be exempted if they're on sale. I haven't been to the local Kohl's in quite a while, but in my experience most of the time the Amazon Returns station seems to be the busiest part of the store.

In my experience, the places like Ross and TJMaxx are good for household items, but 75% of the time if I try to find clothing there I'll walk out empty handed because anything I like will almost always be the wrong size, and anything they do have in my size I won't like. Also, 80% of what's on the rack is off-brand stuff.
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: Kohls

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

storewanderer wrote: November 19th, 2020, 10:06 pm It looks like Ross, TJ Maxx, Target, Burlington, etc. are basically putting the final death blows for these department stores. Those 4 stores are absolutely packed with customers, have been ever since they reopened last summer, and the customers are buying bagfulls of stuff. I don't like any of those stores, but I guess I better start.
And there you go-with those other stores you mention, you don't have to jump through hoops to get a decent price. And "Kohl's Cash" is not exactly the bonanza they make it out to be. Sure, you'll get that kind of money off an item but look at how high it's marked up to start with so maybe, just maybe, you come out even where you'd be if you bought an item at one of those other stores but most of the time you don't so why not just cut out the games to begin with and just go to those other stores instead which is what shoppers are doing. Who can blame them? I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart by any means but love 'em or hate 'em they don't play that game and neither does Target or any of those others.
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Kohls 2021 - Hostile takeover attempt

Post by SamSpade »

Apparently today a hedge fund that owns just under 10% of KOHLS attempted to seat 9 board members favorable to their plans and positions.
It failed, but it sent the stock up a few points today.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kohls-ac ... 30172.html
More details in the Wall St. Journal, but that requires a subscription.
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Re: Kohls 2021 - Hostile takeover attempt

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: February 22nd, 2021, 8:47 pm Apparently today a hedge fund that owns just under 10% of KOHLS attempted to seat 9 board members favorable to their plans and positions.
It failed, but it sent the stock up a few points today.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kohls-ac ... 30172.html
More details in the Wall St. Journal, but that requires a subscription.
Kohls was run in an odd manner during 2020. I mean, it was like they didn't even try at all. The stores looked terrible during Christmas; limited supply of items, limited promotion, and limited staffing. I really thought Kohl's decided to just let 2020 be as bad as possible, then they would get aggressive again (as they have been in the past) in 2021 with more merchandise, promotions, etc. But so far in 2021 they have been even worse than they were in 2020 as far as their product mix, promotions, and inventory levels go.

Kohl's wasn't really any different than most of its competitors (except Macy's I feel put out a strong effort over the holidays) during 2020 and that is the problem. Typically Kohl's has been better than its competitors on merchandise mix, promotions, and driving traffic to its stores...
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Re: Kohls

Post by SamSpade »

And when your faux currency can be the butt of the joke of so many American produced TV programs (like Canadian Tire Money in Canada)... seems like something is there. ((shrug))

Note, edited missing portion of phrase.
Last edited by SamSpade on February 24th, 2021, 10:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
storewanderer
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Re: Kohls

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: February 23rd, 2021, 11:25 am And when your faux currency can be the butt of so many American produced TV programs (like Canadian Tire Money in Canada)... seems like something is there. ((shrug))
Exposure is exposure. Seems like a marketing success.

Personally no fan of Kohl's Cash due to limited ongoing need for their products and high dollar of out of pocket spend needed to obtain said funny money. I prefer the currencies provided by drugstores known as the Extra Bucks, Walgreens Cash, and Bonus Cash which can be relatively easily rolled from week to week (buy items with their funny money today that generate more funny money to use next week, rinse and repeat after a cash outlay in the first week).
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Re: Kohls

Post by Super S »

Kohl's could make some changes that could drive people to their stores. But I am seeing issues there that are similar to other chains. Among them limited size selection (very little in men's above 2XL for shirts) and reduced staffing, often long lines at the checkouts with few registers open. The COVID situation hasn't helped with fitting rooms closed in many locations, which is not good in a store where a good chunk of the sales floor is clothing. I hate buying clothes online, and have already made two returns on items I need for work that do not fit properly, which I can not find in any local store. Stores could improve sales just by stocking a wider range of sizes consistently.
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