Is Kohl’s Fast Fashion? An Expert Breakdown!
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The USA is like a hub for fashion brands and retail stores because of the high demand and presence of the fashion industry in the country. That is the reason that no number of stores there can be enough because no matter how many new stores open up, the demand keeps increasing. Kohl’s is a US-based retail and departmental store in the USA that is categorized as the second biggest departmental store in the USA by sales.
It was established in 1946 by Maxwell Kohl who started the department store as a family business with his brother working alongside him. However, what he thought would be a small store began to grow at a rapid pace as people loved the accessibility of items offered there. While it initially sold grocery items, it began to expand to include electronics, toys, and much more. This attracted the families living near the store who felt like Kohl’s offered them the advantage of a single trip instead of having to go to several shops for different items.
The stores expanded and Kohl’s became a chain with stores in many states. Presently, Kohl’s has a store in every state of America except Hawaii. It was only in the 2000s that Kohl’s began to sell clothes as well but it did not make garments of its own, instead it displayed the items produced by other brands. Moreover, with the launch of its website in 2001, Kohl’s managed to reach a wider audience than before who would be attracted by its unique model.
It was found that the average customer age at Kohl’s is from 30 to 45 which points towards the fact that Kohl’s attracts people with families. The core of Kohl’s ideology is “empowering families to lead fulfilled lives.” This means that Kohl’s has always wanted its foundation to include family values.
It aims to provide as many rewards and advantages to the customers as it can. It offers low prices and a wholesome experience that is based on putting the customer first.
Sustainability Rating: 2/10
Category: Clothing, Grocery, Accessories
For: Women, Men, Kids
Products: Shirts, Pants, Toys, Shoes
Style: Casual, Athleisure
Quality: Low, Medium
Prices: -
Size: -
Fabrics: Polyester, Cotton, Spandex, Viscose, Elastane, Linen, Leather, Nylon
100% Organic: No
100% Vegan: No
Ethical and Fair: No
Recycling: No
Manufacturing Countries: Not Transparent Enough
Certifications: Not Transparent Enough
Kohl’s has made deals with different brands through which it receives items at comparatively low prices and can sell them at lower prices as well. This is another reason that families prefer to shop here because it offers branded items at cheaper prices. It displays products by independent and private brands and also bigger brands like Sephora. An interesting thing about Kohl’s is that it asks those brands to open a smaller shop inside the big Kohl’s building and sell from there.
The target demographic of Kohl’s is mainly middle-class families who are looking to buy good quality items at affordable prices. It can maintain these prices by having a limited staff and progressive systems that depend more on technology. It is often referred to as the “Kohl’s concept”.
With time, many supermarkets and department stores owned by Kohl’s were closed because of poor management and low stock prices. Some think that Kohl’s has expanded way more than its capacity and it has become harder for the brand to handle so many items at once like beauty products, fitness products, and home products.
In 2018, Fortune 500 gave the store the ranking of 157th out of the 200 biggest United States corporations. Its partnership with Amazon also helped it gain a boost because some of its stores began to accept Amazon returns.
Kohl’s believes in creating an atmosphere that fosters diversity and inclusivity. It believes that people belonging to different areas and backgrounds can help foster a healthier and creative environment because of this it strives to find talent from all over the world who can work at Kohl’s. It even received an award for creating a safe space for women and was listed in the 2022 Seramount Top Companies for Executive Women.
As for sustainability, we can not label Kohl’s as either fast fashion or not because it does produce any item of its own. However, if we judge based on the items that it displays and the brands it houses, Kohl’s is fast fashion. Most of the brands that it has partnered with are uncaring towards the environment and follow fast fashion models that are based on the quick manufacturing and discarding of products that add to the global environment.
Kohl’s does have a sustainability page on its website where it recognizes its responsibility towards the environment. It claims to only work with brands that follow a certain sustainability criterion but there is no proof to back up such claims. Probably some of the brands are eco-friendly but the majority are not. Most of them have a high concentration of environmental waste and toxic waste. One way it has been playing its part is by using low-carbon transportation.
As for Kohl’s ethical practices, we are again unable to label the brand as anything because it is not involved in any factory work. However, as most of the brands that sell through it are fast fashion, they are also unethical. They have factories in developing countries like India and China where human rights are violated daily and people have to work under terrible conditions to earn a minimum wage and sometimes even below it.
It is also hard to track what certifications it might have because it does not display much information about what goes on behind the scenes. Overall, Kohl’s is a good brand that sells a variety of products of considerable quality but that is all the information we can extract from it because of the huge number of brands working under it.
In conclusion, we can say that Kohl’s cannot be called a fast fashion brand because it is not in control of any of the production processes.