Struggling Kohl’s to Close 27 Stores, Cut 10% of Corporate Workforce

Kohl’s will close 27 underperforming stores by April 2025 and shutter an ecommerce fulfillment center (EFC) in San Bernardino, Calif. when the lease on that property expires in May 2025, according to documents the company filed with the SEC earlier this month. The San Bernardino facility is one of 15 EFCs and distribution centers, and the closing stores represent approximately 2.3% of Kohl’s 1,150 locations.

The retailer also will cut approximately 10% of its corporate workforce, according to the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets.

Like other department stores, Kohl’s has had trouble adjusting to changes in consumer shopping patterns. Net sales for the retailer’s Q3 2024, which ended Nov. 2, 2024, declined 8.8% year over year, to $3.5 billion, and comparable sales dropped 9.3%. Nor were these results an anomaly: for the nine months that ended Nov. 2, net sales decreased 6.1% year over year to $10.2 billion, with comp sales declining 6.4%.

Kohl’s estimates the store and EFC closures will result in $60 to $80 million in charges, and anticipates that “substantially” all the charges will be incurred during its Q4 2024, which ends in early February 2025.