() is a
Department Store chain headquartered in
Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin , a suburb of
Milwaukee . It was started by
Max Kohl in
1962 . The stores sell a variety of goods, such as
Apparel ,
Shoes and accessories for women, children and men, plus home products like small
Electronics , bedding, luggage, and more. The store aims at the middle and upper-middle class, and are located in many enclosed
Shopping Mall s. However, newer stores are usually built in smaller shopping centers around larger, enclosed ones; some of its stores in Texas are located far away from traditional malls. The store is considered to be a step above chains like
Wal-Mart ,
Target , and
Kmart but not quite as classy as
Macy's , or
Dillard's .
Kohl's features virtually the same merchandise mix as traditional department stores. However, its operations differ considerably from that model. The most noticeable distinction between Kohl's and traditional department stores is that all Kohl's stores have centralized checkout aisles, unlike the traditional setup of separate checkout counters in each major department. This has led many observers to consider Kohl's a hybrid of a department store and a mass merchandiser.
There are about 700 Kohl's stores in 38 states in the United States. The chain's expansion has mainly focused on the middle of the country; however, they recently expanded into the Rochester, New York and Buffalo, New York markets. As of April, 2005, the Company is opening stores in Florida and other Southern states.
The company has had a . The company entered the
S&P 500 list in 1998, and is also listed in the
Fortune 500 .
, he started the first department store, also called Kohl's.
In
1972 the
British-American Tobacco Company , then known as Brown and Williamson Tobacco, bought the department stores and food stores. The Kohl family, led by
Herb and Allen Kohl, stayed on to manage the company. The family left the management in
1979 , and Herb Kohl went on to become a United States Senator and owner of the
Milwaukee Bucks . This firm expanded Kohl's presence from 10 to 39 stores in Wisconsin,
Illinois and Indiana.
The grocery stores were sold to
A&P in
1983 . The last grocery stores closed in
2003 .
A group of investors, including the senior management, purchased the company in
1986 , and the company added 27 more stores in the next two years. In
1992 , the company went public, and a period of expansion began. Kohl's entered mid-Atlantic markets in
1997 (opening in many former locations of ''Clover'' (an offshoot of the
Strawbridge's corporation) brand department stores in the
Philadelphia region);
Texas and
Missouri in
1999 ;
Georgia and the Southeast in
2001 ;
New England in
2002 ;
California and the Southwest in
2003 ; and the Northwest in
2006 .
