Where dresses or other kinds of merchandise are stocked on the walls, Kohl's leaves long poles nearby so shoppers can help themselves, a tactic that also helps the stores maintain lean staffs. Signs over each department make it easy to quickly find a merchandise area from almost any point along the track. The retailer also uses crisp merchandise presentations that draw shoppers to the goods. Colors are displayed from light to dark, a pattern retail industry research says is most appealing to the eye. For instance, thermal T-shirts were recently shelved from left to right in stacks of white, lavender, pink, green and blue.
Some workers wear colorful beaded bracelets as a guide for following the meticulous color pattern.
Going forward, Kohl's inevitably will face the same challenge of any hot retail brand maintaining cachet with fickle consumers. If Kohl's should stumble in a slower economy, investors could lose. What's more, he adds, Kohl's simple strategy could be mimicked by other retailers. For now, however, the chain is thriving on its strategy of ultimate simplicity. Kohl's takes the grocery-store concept of placing impulse items at centralized checkout registers at the front of the store.