Did you hear Kohl's is closing 18 stores

[RitaE]

The JcPenney Ron Johnson fiasco was far more complicated than the no coupon pricing. A large driver of the customer revolt had far more to do with his elimination of a legacy product lines that the existing customers went to JcPenney to buy and not replacing it with inventory that anybody wanted to buy. He had this vision of turning JcPenney into some sort of slightly less than upscale destination shopping venue and he didn't have the capital to pull off the renovations, the purchasing departments failed to stock sellable inventory that would generate sales, and the Marketing Department failed time and time again at convincing anybody young or old, at any income level that JcPenney is a "destination shopping experience."

I'm not sure the Kohl's closings are indicative of much. I mean, there's 4 Kohls within driving distance of my house and I can't imagine how many nationwide. 18 has to be a tiny tiny fraction of their total store locations. It could be just a routine closure of underperforming stores. I mean, a McDonalds around here just shuttered up too and nobody is worried that they are disappearing that I've heard.

 

[MommaBerd]

The JcPenney Ron Johnson fiasco was far more complicated than the no coupon pricing. A large driver of the customer revolt had far more to do with his elimination of a legacy product lines that the existing customers went to JcPenney to buy and not replacing it with inventory that anybody wanted to buy. He had this vision of turning JcPenney into some sort of slightly less than upscale destination shopping venue and he didn't have the capital to pull off the renovations, the purchasing departments failed to stock sellable inventory that would generate sales, and the Marketing Department failed time and time again at convincing anybody young or old, at any income level that JcPenney is a "destination shopping experience."

I realize that - I was just keeping it simple and relevant to the topic at hand. I was really rooting for them to succeed. All the changes he made attracted me to buying there. Since they "reverted back," I'm not as happy with the products, especially for boys. And it is REALLY hard to find clothes that I like for boys. Kohl's is definitely a fail in this department.

 

[DebbieB]

The problem with Penneys was their new prices were high. I know they had a line of dress pants I liked. They were normally $36 on sale for $24.99 and then you could apply coupons. When they went to their new pricing, they were $36 all the time. Forget that.

 

[OhMari]

Exactly! More than once I was checking out at Penney's and remembered a $10 coupon sitting on my counter at home. It was so frustrating and I loved the new pricing system. But as you said, customers revolted and our local Penney's actually closed. It a small town like mine (40,000 pop.) it was a big loss.

If Kohl's goes too it would be devastating.

We lost our JCPenny and the size of our town was 48,000. We thought we were okay, with another one 15 miles up the road, but the closed 6 months later. We can either shop online or go 40 miles north or 55 miles south.

People upset with loosing Target-I'm sorry, but their line of shirts are horrible. You need to layer 3, because they are made so flimsy. Pants are a hit and a miss.

 

[MagicPlanning]

The problem with Penneys was their new prices were high. I know they had a line of dress pants I liked. They were normally $36 on sale for $24.99 and then you could apply coupons. When they went to their new pricing, they were $36 all the time. Forget that.

Yes, this! I stopped shopping at JCP and started shopping at Kohl's. Once JCP brought back coupons and I could beat Kohl's on deals for stuff like socks & underwear I went back to JCP.

 

[superme80]

I have only shopped at Kohls a handful of times. Most of their clothes are ugly and not well made. I shop a little bit at JPC. I didn't care about the coupons, but was upset about clothing lines going away. Just give me back Mervyn's!!!!!!! Ironically enough I tend to find a lot of clothing I like at KMart.

 

[scrapquitler]

That number of stores closing doesn't seem like it's a huge shakeup or even likely to be an indication of the store struggling...most of the stores are in California, which makes it seem at least to me like they just might not be the right store for those markets, and I also always wonder how many might be just a matter of them trying to get out of unfavorable leases.

 

[debster812]

That number of stores closing doesn't seem like it's a huge shakeup or even likely to be an indication of the store struggling...most of the stores are in California, which makes it seem at least to me like they just might not be the right store for those markets, and I also always wonder how many might be just a matter of them trying to get out of unfavorable leases.

I think there are upwards of 1100 Kohl's stores in the US. Closing 18 stores could really just account for bad leases and significantly underperforming stores. They are also talking about opening some new format, smaller footprint stores.

 

[morgan98]

I know that a couple of the locations are in "dying" malls anyway, so it would not surprise me that they were under performing stores anyway.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), most of my buying is going to online. This is not about Kohl's really, as I don't shop there, but it seems like many brands do not take great care of their brick and mortar stores. Inventory is poor, people that work there are not familiar with the products they carry, etc. I have gone to several stores recently (all different brands) hoping to check something out in person, only to have to come home and order online because they were either out of what I wanted or the color, etc. was not available in store.

I do not mind ordering online, really. But I find it frustrating to not be able to see what you want in person at a store and just buying it. If that is how places are going to operate, it is no surprise online shopping will take over.

 

[MommyBryn]

Interesting, haven't heard this! Thankfully I only shop there once or twice a year anyway.

Kohl's lost my business several years ago when they doubled their prices overnight then posted 40% off "sales" like it was a big savings. We now only shop there when we receive a gift card. We were really bummed when we asked and couldn't use the gift card to purchase a different gift card.

They lost my moms business over not letting her access her own Kohls card account. It wouldn't run at the register for whatever reason (a fully active card that she used regularly and always paid off fully), and CS couldn't help her so she called in. When she called in they told her someone had used her card and so they locked it, and were sending her a new one secured with a password. She followed all instructions with new card but it was just a regular card, no password information anywhere or required to activate, and several months later when she went to use it at the checkout, it wouldn't work, and she gave them every possible password it could be (in front of a huge line of people), and none worked, cashier told her "Sorry ma'am, we can't let you use your card if you don't know the password." She didn't end up purchasing anything and called Kohls from home. They told her she needed to take care of it at the store (nice...they've done this to me, too, and she and I both live an hour away from our nearest Kohls). Several days later at the store, customer service told her "Sorry ma'am, we can't remove your password here, you need to call from home." So she gets ticked and has them call corporate...who is clearly trying to verify my mom's identity with the customer service rep on the phone. The rep says "Yes, it's her, I'm looking at her and her I.D. right now, yes I have all of her personal information..." and then asked my mom for a utility bill. Ummm, no, she didn't just happen to have a utility bill in her purse and no one told her to bring one (and the rep said this to the person on the phone)! So she asked to speak with corporate herself and the customer service rep handed her the phone. She told corporate that she just wants the secured password taken off her card so she can use it (which is only there because someone ELSE used her old card at some point...she had nothing to do with it!), and they said they need to know the password before they can remove it. She said "I DON'T KNOW THE PASSWORD, THAT'S THE PROBLEM!!" So she told corporate, "Just CLOSE my account, I have no desire to shop here anymore."

Of course, their response was, "I'm sorry ma'am, we can't close your account without the password."

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

There are too many kohl's in my opinion. They have over saturated themselves and their product is no good. Nothing lasts!

 

[mousefanmichelle]

I always used to get good deals at Kohls and the last few years it seems there aren't any deals to be found :-( even with a coupon so I stopped shopping there. I don't do much shopping anyway but what I did do was there for the family and now ??? I just don't really shop anymore.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Kohl's is about the only place we can find pants that he likes for my son. I'm glad the one nearest me isn't on the list.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

YIKES!!! What a bummer - I've never even heard of a Target closing. Hopefully you won't lose anymore of your local shopping options.

Guess you've never heard of Target Canada?

Although I have to say it certainly wasn't as great as the US Targets, so not much to miss.

Glad to see the Kohls we visit in the US isn't on the chopping block. We love it!

 

[any name you wish]

Kohls is a mixed bag for me. If you go when the sales hit, use the coupons and 'kohls cash' you can usually find really decent prices. The down side is that almost all the time the clothing is not kept up well so when you get to checkout you have to watch VERY carefully that the prices match the signs. A lot of times something you thought was marked $20 might ring up $35 or higher. Or if you have a few things that trigger a by one get one 50% off you have to watch that as well as the 'higher' priced item might be significantly higher than you anticipated. I choose to believe this is mostly due to sloppy inventory management instead of malicious intent on the store but it could go either way I guess. We use the khols card only when there is a discount for it and then we pay it off with a check in a second transaction immediately after the purchase.