Kohl’s (NYSE:KSS) is a U.S. retailer, operating 1,004 department stores nationwide as of November 2008.^[1] Kohl's appeals to middle-class consumers with discounted branded and private label clothing and home goods, and its $16.4 billion of sales in 2007 place it behind its national department store competitors J.C. Penney (JCP) and Macy's Inc. (M).^[2]

As the U.S. economy slipped into a recession at the end of 2007, retailers suffered from declining consumer spending, and Kohl's was no exception.^[3] Kohl's same store sales fell 0.8% in 2007^[2] and results worsened in 2008 as Kohl's reported a 6.0% decrease in same store sales for the first nine months of 2008.^[1] But Kohl's discounted pricing has allowed it to ride out the storm better than some of its higher priced department store counterparts - Kohl's reported a 1.5% increase in net sales in the first nine months of 2008 while competitor Nordstrom (JWN), for example, reported a 5.4% decline in net sales and an 11% drop in same store sales in the third quarter of FY08 alone.^[4]

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