As sales slump, Kohl’s turns to a new CEO to bring back customers

A new CEO took the reins at Kohl’s this month, hoping to reverse a long losing streak at America’s largest department store chain. But after years of declining sales, a sharp drop in stock value and waning customer trust, Ashley Buchanan could find the chain’s problems hard to turn around.

A new CEO took the reins at Kohl’s this month, hoping to reverse a long losing streak at America’s largest department store chain. But after years of declining sales, a sharp drop in stock value and waning customer trust, Ashley Buchanan could find the chain’s problems hard to turn around. While Kohl’s more than 1,150 stores have seen their share of fumbled executive decisions, Kohl’s decline also is part of a broader retail industry trend. Competition from online sellers, high inflation and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have caused retail players across America to shrink, declare bankruptcy or even close for good in recent years. The previous Kohl’s CEO, Tom Kingsbury, downsized private-label brands, petite clothing sizes, and fine jewelry departments, replacing them with Sephora cosmetics and Babies “R” Us shops, continuing a plan that began before he took the top job. The moves alienated longtime shoppers who valued Kohl’s for its quality clothes at reasonable prices. “If you want to keep stores open, you’ve got to give people reasons to shop in your store,” said Jean-Pierre Dubé, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and marketing professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Kingsbury inherited a company already in financial turmoil, then failed to turn it around. Kohl’s sales have declined for 11 consecutive quarters, and its stock value has dropped nearly 50% over the past year. “Kingsbury disconnected from their core customer and failed to connect with the younger generation that he was presumably going after,” said Dubé.