Shoppers like Gold have made Kohl’s the hot retailer going into an otherwise glum holiday shopping season. The chain has grown from 76 stores a decade ago to 457 today, and sales have jumped more than sevenfold to about $8 billion a year over the same time frame. With brand names like Nike, Dockers and OshKosh, it’s teaching a costly les-son to struggling competitors like Sears and JCPenney. Retail experts say the company’s succeeded in part by steering clear of high-rent malls with multilevel layouts that frustrate time-starved customers. Instead, Kohl’s keeps it simple, with one floor of clothes and housewares. And it sells them at discount prices. (Kohl’s executives are notoriously press-shy and declined to be interviewed.) The stores are designed to be manageable–typically half the size of a big-box retailer. There’s a wide aisle, shaped like an oval racetrack, through the store, rather than the maze shoppers usually encounter. And they have an innovative stroller-shopping cart that lets their typical customer–a mom with kids in tow–get around easily. “Kohl’s is so convenient they’ve taken market share from everyone,” says Kurt Barnard, a retailing consultant.
Kohl’s stores are also cheap to run. Merchandise is shipped ready to sell from their distribution centers so store clerks don’t have to fold, ticket or put clothes on hangers. Kohl’s doesn’t stock bulky items like TVs or patio furniture that hog precious floor space and require extra hands to show and sell.
In a volatile business like retail clothing, though, you’re only as good as your last season. (Kohl’s stock–a star in recent years–dropped 9 percent in October after warm weather slowed sales of fall gear.) And the competition for its customers is fierce. Taking a page from the Kohl’s playbook, Sears is trying a racetrack layout. Customers at Macy’s will soon find shopping carts on some floors. Kohl’s is playing offense, too. It plans to open 80 stores in the Southwest and California next year.
Kohl’s isn’t to everyone’s taste. Its relentless focus on shapeless basics like T shirts, chinos, sweats and sweaters has given it zero cachet with the Abercrombie & Fitch set. And retail experts question whether it’ll thrive in southern California, where it’s planning its big expansion. “They’ll be selling to a more style-conscious population,” says Eric Beder, a retail analyst at Ladenburg Thalmann. Maybe so. But even though Renee Gold’s teenage daughter flat-out refuses to wear jeans from Kohl’s, Gold shops the juniors’ department anyway. Moms know that even the most label-obsessed teens still need socks.
