Super S wrote: ↑January 27th, 2022, 8:30 am
rwsandiego wrote: ↑January 26th, 2022, 10:42 pm
storewanderer wrote: ↑January 26th, 2022, 9:10 pm
Kohl's problem is they have lost touch with the customer. Their stores are not well rounded and many departments have a dead/tired feel with poor merchandising. They remind me of Sears, not many years ago even. Kohl's has declined quickly; they were not like this even 5 years ago.
Since reopening Kohl's has gotten even worse with significantly less inventory, less staffing, and fewer promotions. Clearly they are trying to balance things but it appears to me they are walking sales (and cash flow) by having less inventory and fewer promotions. This will push them down sooner than if they were operating the way they were 5 years ago.
Some retail types cash flow better than others. Grocery is especially great for cash flow.
I often wondered about a Kohls-some grocer merger. Steve Burd of Safeway was on Kohls Board and at one time they did a few promotions (spend $50 at Safeway get $10 Kohls coupon or something) but nothing really developed. Of course they started out in the grocery business too.
You should have seen what Kohl's looked like before they bought MainStreet from Federated back in the late 1980's. OMG - their stores were terrible. Very outdated stores and low-end merchandise. Essentially, they adapted MainStreet's format and added small electrics, vacuums/floor care, and small furniture (bookcases, TV stands, etc.). Furniture was later eliminated. They used MainStreet's markets of Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis as test labs, revamped their Milwaukee stores, and then started their expansion in the mid- to late-90's.
Prior to A&P getting their mitts on it, Kohls Food Stores were pretty nice. They had some beautiful arched stores, much like Safeway's Marina stores.
Not saying they should do this, but if Albertson's bought Kohl's they could re-ignite the Jewel-Osco-Turn*Style concept.
A Facebook page I follow (Dead and Dying Retail) recently posted pictures of a Kohl's opened a few years ago that has open ceilings with warehouse style lights and polished concrete floors. I really hope that they aren't planning more of these as it's not the right look for a chain like this. While I don't consider Kohl's upscale, I don't consider it a bargain basement type of store either at their price point.
They did say a few years ago that effectively a plain big box format was their future growth vehicle. Warehouse ceiling, no dividing walls, perimeter fitting rooms, and mobile fixtures on a concrete floor. The intent was to be completely flexible. Just what a store that doesn't know what it is anymore would do.
They had a deal with Aldi to split up hundreds of the larger stores, around 500 stores, and remodel to the new format in substantially less space with full demising walls turning the building into two independent facilities. I haven't seen a single one actually get done at least not anywhere in California and I'm pretty sure they only got one built out. I'm sure Aldi realized not only the massive customer mismatch and the easier availability of whitespace but also the fact that they were going to be hitched to the wrong horse. That deal is probably as dead as Kohl's will be soon. They were also supposedly going to sublet other stores to Planet Fitness but I'm sure COVID killed that deal.
To
properly split a store like this in two - meaning actual demising walls, proper separation of fire sprinkler systems and other building operations, mandates a closure due to heavy construction. Otherwise you wind up with a sloppy drywall divider and maybe a new hole cut in the back wall for another dock but then the two tenants share common fire alarms, fire sprinklers, HVAC systems etc. which is a nightmare to manage. I've worked in two facilities where it was a divided closed Kmart. One was done right and it took six months for them to trench for a new block wall to divide, cut and replumb the fire sprinklers to make two separate buildings out of it, dig a new dock the right way etc. The other was older and got the crappy drywall dividing method and it was a nightmare. Nothing worked independently. If the next door neighbor closed early we would lose our parking lot lights because all the energy management systems for the exterior were all in the other suite. The roof hatch was on our side so the neighbors constantly had to drag their maintenance guys through my store when their refrigeration went down. I am pretty sure that newer building codes won't allow the drywall hack jobs anymore.
This entire proposal was indicative of a inexperienced leadership team that had no idea what the costs are and how difficult it is to just start chopping up open and active stores into pieces. There is a reason the preferred store setup most of the time is fully demolishing previous tenant buildings and starting from scratch as it is usually cheaper. The only reason for gut and redo within existing walls at most times is grandfathered in parking requirements or other permits the site would not get if it was built new to current codes. Same reason why sometimes you see a house completely torn down except for one small wall - by leaving that single wall its a "remodel" and allows for use of expired zoning requirements or other restrictions a new building would not enjoy. The leaders that came up with this hairbrained scheme are the ones that have run the business into the ground as we see today.