The Wisconsin-born department store betting that value, loyalty, and the right partners can keep the mid-tier alive.
Walk into a Kohl's on a Saturday morning and you will find the whole thesis of American mid-market retail on display: racks of moderately priced apparel, a wall of national sneaker brands, bedding stacked to the ceiling, a Sephora counter glowing near the entrance, and a line of shoppers at the register clutching coupons and Kohl's Cash. This is not the glamorous end of retail. It is the durable end - and for more than six decades, durability has been the point.
Kohl's is one of the largest department store chains in the United States, running roughly 1,100 stores across 49 states plus Kohls.com. It sells apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty, and home goods to value-conscious families, most of them suburban and middle-income. In fiscal 2024 the company reported net sales of about $15.4 billion. That figure was down roughly 7.2% from the year before, which is the tension animating everything Kohl's does right now: it is large, established, and profitable enough to matter, and it is fighting to stop a multi-year erosion of sales and market share.
The company's roots run deeper than the department store itself. In 1927, a Polish immigrant named Maxwell Kohl opened a corner grocery in the Milwaukee area and built it into a profitable regional food chain. In 1962, the family branched out and opened the first Kohl's Department Store. Thirty years after that, in 1992, the company completed its initial public offering and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KSS, with 76 stores in the Midwest. From that base it expanded nationally, and the small grocery in Milwaukee became a chain serving millions of households.
“To be the most trusted retailer of choice for the active and casual lifestyle.”
At its core Kohl's is a value-oriented, off-mall department store. That last phrase matters more than it sounds. While many rivals anchored themselves inside enclosed shopping malls, Kohl's built free-standing stores in convenient suburban locations - easy to drive to, easy to park at, easy to get in and out of. That real estate choice shaped its cost structure and its identity as a place for a quick, purposeful family shopping trip rather than a day at the mall.
The merchandise mix spans women's, men's, and children's clothing, activewear, shoes, and accessories, alongside a large home and kitchen assortment: bedding, decor, furniture, and kitchen essentials. Kohl's carries a blend of recognizable national brands and its own private-label lines, the latter of which typically carry higher margins. Beauty, once a minor category, has become a headline act thanks to Sephora.
Kohl's core customer is the value-conscious American family - the household that watches prices, responds to promotions, and rewards a retailer that makes a dollar stretch. Crucially, many of these shoppers are loyal and habitual, timing purchases around Kohl's Cash windows and earning rewards on the Kohl's Card. The Sephora rollout has begun to widen that base, pulling in younger and first-time shoppers; the company has said beauty attracted a large share of customers who were new to Kohl's.
For shoppers, Kohl's solves a simple problem: getting a family clothed, shod, and stocked at home without paying full-line department store prices. Its promotions, loyalty currency, and private labels are all built around delivering perceived value at the register. For partners, Kohl's solves a distribution problem - it offers reach into hundreds of suburban communities and a steady flow of foot traffic that is hard to replicate.
Two partnerships show that reach in action. In 2019, Kohl's expanded a program to accept free returns of eligible Amazon orders at all of its U.S. stores. It was a piece of retail jiu-jitsu: instead of treating Amazon purely as a threat, Kohl's turned the friction of e-commerce returns into a reason to walk into a Kohl's - where a returning customer might also browse, and often left with a discount coupon. Then came Sephora. Beginning in 2021, Kohl's began building Sephora prestige-beauty shops inside its stores under a long-term strategic partnership, later expanding the concept across the chain and onto Kohls.com. The partnership married Kohl's expansive customer reach and omnichannel convenience with Sephora's prestige product selection and service.
“The partnership marries Kohl's expansive customer reach and omnichannel convenience with Sephora's prestige service, product selection and beauty experience.”
The business model is layered on top of merchandise sales. The first layer is straightforward: buy goods, mark them up, sell them through stores and online. The second layer is credit and loyalty. The Kohl's Card, a private-label store credit card, and the Kohl's Rewards program - which gives cardholders 7.5% back on purchases - deepen the relationship and add economics beyond the product margin. Kohl's Cash, earned during promotional windows and redeemed later, is one of the stickiest loyalty mechanics in American retail, training customers to come back. The third layer is partnerships and private label: Sephora shops and Amazon returns bring traffic, while Kohl's own brands lift margins above what national goods alone would deliver.
Kohl's sits in a crowded field. It competes with Macy's and JCPenney among traditional department stores; with Target and Walmart on value and convenience; and increasingly with the off-price giants - TJX (T.J. Maxx and Marshalls), Ross Stores, and Burlington - that have been winning bargain hunters. Amazon looms over all of it.
What distinguishes Kohl's is the combination rather than any single element: an off-mall, family-convenient store footprint; a loyalty and coupon system customers genuinely engage with; a national-plus-private-label assortment; and a pair of high-profile partnerships - Sephora and Amazon returns - that few peers can match at the same scale. The off-price players compete on treasure-hunt discovery and Target competes on trendy design and one-stop convenience; Kohl's competes on familiar value plus reasons to keep coming back.
Kohl's occupies the middle tier of American retail - above the dollar stores, below the full-line luxury department stores, and adjacent to mass merchants and off-price chains. It is precisely this middle that has been squeezed hardest over the past decade, as shoppers migrated toward both the low end and online. That is why the turnaround narrative is so central to any honest profile of the company: Kohl's has the scale and recognition of an incumbent and the vulnerability of a business whose category is shrinking.
Apparel, footwear, activewear, accessories, home, and kitchen - in store and on Kohls.com with pickup options.
Prestige beauty shops inside Kohl's stores and online, bringing skincare and cosmetics to a value retailer.
Drop off eligible Amazon returns free and packing-free at most locations - often with a bonus coupon.
Stack Kohl's Cash and Kohl's Rewards (7.5% for cardholders) to bring the price down on repeat trips.
Kohl's has navigated notable leadership turnover. In 2025 the board terminated CEO Ashley Buchanan for cause over undisclosed conflicts of interest in vendor transactions. Board member and chair Michael J. Bender stepped in as interim CEO and was appointed permanent CEO effective November 23, 2025. Bender brings decades of leadership across retail and consumer goods, with prior roles at Eyemart Express, Walmart, L Brands, and PepsiCo. Christie Raymond serves as Chief Marketing Officer, focused on winning the loyalty of value shoppers.
Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl opens a corner grocery that grows into a regional food chain.
The Kohl family enters suburban value retail with its first department store.
Kohl's goes public as KSS with 76 Midwestern stores and begins national expansion.
Free Amazon returns roll out to all U.S. stores to drive incremental foot traffic.
Kohl's launches Sephora shop-in-shops, beginning a landmark prestige-beauty partnership.
Net sales come in around $15.4 billion, down roughly 7.2% year over year.
CEO Ashley Buchanan is fired for cause; Michael Bender becomes interim then permanent CEO.
Moderately priced apparel, footwear, accessories, beauty (via Sephora), and home goods including bedding, decor, furniture, and kitchen items - in stores and on Kohls.com.
In Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, United States.
Roughly 1,100 off-mall department stores across 49 U.S. states, alongside its e-commerce site.
Kohl's loyalty programs: Kohl's Cash is earned during promotional windows to spend later, and Kohl's Rewards gives cardholders 7.5% back on purchases.
Yes - most Kohl's stores accept free, packing-free returns of eligible Amazon orders, though availability at a few locations has changed over time.