Kohl's Corporation (NYSE: KSS) is a department store chain headquartered in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. Kohl's operates 700 stores located in 38 states. The stores are considered to be a step above chains such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Kmart, but at a lower price level than Macy's or Dillard's.

History

Max Kohl built a grocery store in 1946, the first in what would become a southeastern Wisconsin chain known as Kohl's Food Stores. [1] In 1962, he started the first department store, also called Kohl's.

In 1972 the British-American Tobacco Company bought the department stores and grocery stores. The Kohl family, led by Allen and Herb 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 eventually sold to A&P in 1983, but the last of them were later 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.

The chain's expansion has mainly focused on the middle of the country; however, they recently expanded into the Rochester and Buffalo markets in Western New York. As of April 2005, the company is opening stores in Florida and other Southern states.

Kohl's mission, as stated in store and online, is to be the leading value-oriented, family-focused, specialty department store. Kohl's is known for giving great customer service, through it's "Yes We Can" policy.

The company entered the S&P 500 list in 1998 and is also listed in the Fortune 500.