The CEO of Kohl's came and guest spoke in my Marketing 300 lecture today. Everything about the branding and segmentation they do is very interesting. But as I was sitting there I could only think of one question, "Why are very few Kohl's located in malls like a Macy's or JCP?"
As a real estate major, I know that most of the time anchor tenants (like Kohl's would be) have free rent in malls. Why would they spend so much money acquiring real estate and be ok with having all that fixed overhead?
As shown by the demise of Blockbuster, the times are changing. Bricks and mortar are becoming liabilities as opposed to an asset. Even Kohl's who has increased their online sales from 250 million dollars in 2006 to 1,600 million dollars in 2011 have got to be aware that an increased online presence diminishes the need for a store.
I almost raised my hand to ask what the strategy is behind all of Kohl's freestanding stores. Because it is obviously in their business plan....but I didn't. I thought, "oh, I'll look it up later."
And now I can't find it online anywhere. Maybe I'm searching the wrong words but I am thoroughly disappointed I didn't ask (although it was a 400 person lecture, all of whom just wanted to get the heck out of the class so I know by being on the other end many of times I would have had many angry glares from the others).
I guess I'll keep searching.
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