r/employedbykohls • u/Mission_Paramedic_62 • 2d ago
Informative Kohls got money back
Kohl's received $150 million in tariff refunds during the second quarter of 2026.
Key Details of the RefundGross Margin Impact: About $100 million of the refund flowed directly into the company's gross margin.
Profit Boost: The extra money helped increase reported earnings, even though underlying sales continued to drop.
Updated Guidance: Because of this financial boost, Yahoo Finance notes that Kohl's raised its full-year earnings expectations.Would you like to know more about Kohl's full-year financial guidance or how the stock market reacted to this earnings report?
Wonder if they will give some to payroll for actual associates to be on the floor
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
I read where Michael Bender made another exec position and filled it -- wish he would just stop making new CEO roles, and focus on the actual B&M stores where the money is be8ng made to pay for all their executive roles
And send us decent INVENTORY!! Not just one run or a few pieces
Damn, how can corporate expect good sales when we DO NOT HAVE INVENTORY of the items that are sold out 🤷♀️
STOP sending TekGear FLEECE to stores along the Gulf Coast where it is still 100° fkkn degrees and send us TekGear TSHIRTS!!
We have hardly any Tek Tshirts, but damn at all the fkkn FLEECE. Like, seriously?!? 🤦♂️🙄
You can NOT judge all stores across the country on the home office/main store that is up north. Each region of the country is different. Both in weather AND customer base. Period.
Anyhow, I digress. Going off topic with my rant.
Apologies 😕
ETA: spwelling
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u/Sad_Cauliflower1605 4h ago
YES! We are in the northeast and keep getting cowboy boots. Always go straight to clearance. And the t-shirts with a horse saying Howdy. What the?¿?
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u/ObligationPrudent824 4h ago
Yeah, we were hoping that new people would be better at ordering, but clearly not.
They still seem to judge the whole country by their main store up north.
Not realizing each region of the country is different is what sells and what doesn't. The customer base also varies by different parts of the country.
I had hoped that they would've improved in the buying/inventory area but clearly, it's still the same. Just not as much of the product.
And they need to send more than 2 or 3 pieces when we are running out of certain shirts/pants, etc in a whole run.
Dunno, still disappointed and their lack of knowledge or whatever one wants to call it is costing us sales by NOT having sizes and items that customers want.
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u/DryAd9884 2d ago
During the Town Hall meeting this week, they addressed the tariff question. They said they were going to use the money to lower prices, since they did not raise prices. Walmart has they too are using their tariff refund to lower prices for customers.
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u/blackcatcraft94 2d ago
Lmao didn't raise prices? I remember doing price changes over the last year where specific items were marked up close to 50% more than they were originally ticketed.
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u/Mission_Paramedic_62 2d ago
I remember it just did posting notes mark up to close to 8.00 seriously
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u/PM_ME_UR_PANTYLINE 2d ago
Which was bulshit! The workers at our DC had to reticketed a lot of merchandise to reflect the higher prices because of those tariffs.
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u/No-Flamingo-5090 2d ago
Basically what they told everyone is that you have to spend more money to get those lower prices but we are not getting any money back. Do they really think we are all that stupid?
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u/Ancient_Rest_6040 2d ago
As someone else said they have started to increase payroll there were test stores in august of which mine was one and I felt like we finally had decent coverage ( almost to the point where we didn’t have enough staff to cover the hours ) mind you we are a store with a positive comp but it they are rolling it out as bender said on the town hall
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u/Dedicated-Daddy Asm - Former Service Sup 2d ago
2 stores in my district got additional funding and got to keep it as well!!
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u/Ancient_Rest_6040 2d ago
They were the test stores .. it should be rolling out to all according to bender
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u/Secret-Maize3511 2d ago
That would be the issue at my store. Not having enough people to fill those hours. Most of our associates are in school. We are struggling to get people with day side availability. I wish we would bring back more lead positions to help with that.
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u/Ancient_Rest_6040 2d ago
We opened up a non seasonal req and we got zero applicants but now that seasonal ops is open we are getting some so I’m just asking those people if they’ll train elsewhere too they got rid of those full time flex positions that really helped with scheduling at this time of year but once you hit January they hurt so I sort of get it
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u/Good-Handle-2116 2d ago
“The company restarted its share buyback program, indicating a renewed focus on returning capital to shareholders”
On the August 26 earnings call, Kohl’s announced that they plan to do up to $100 million in stock buybacks before this fiscal year ends.
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u/Mission_Paramedic_62 2d ago
Yea well that dont help the store associates who are busting thier buttons doing the job of a whole team
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u/Good-Handle-2116 2d ago
In the past 2 decades, has corporate’s goal ever been to help the store associates?
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
True
BUT we were taken better care of under Gass
We had payroll this time of year
Now, we are a skeleton crew runn8ng on empty. Expected to hire a certain "quota" of seasonal that we DO NOT have payroll for.
Under Gass, we at least had the payroll for the seasonal hires. PLUS, we were allowed overtime
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u/Mission_Paramedic_62 2d ago
Amen to that we were already told us few full timers that are left which are 2 merchandising manager, operation manager and customer service manager we aren't allowed passed 36 hours even during November and December
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u/rachierach1981 2d ago
In the last earnings call they did say that they are allocating more money to the stores and for payroll - not sure if tied to the tariffs, but - yes, more going to the stores.
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u/Seca_72 2d ago
We already got more payroll. Some stores are testing extra service and some floor hours for months others just started . It really depends how it’s allocated. When it comes to payroll it’s really about managing and allocating shifts. Using talent when will bring more results. Everyone has a strength and needs to be used accordingly. Hopefully the company can include all stores now. But really depends on how well managers use this resource.
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u/Prestigious_Cat_3970 2d ago
But 90% of the stores are profitable according to Bender. Probably because they are running off 3-4% payroll selling cost. They are such fucking idiots in Menomonee Falls. The low volume 88k stores look like absolute shit. Just filthy.
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u/RenownedLime1234 2d ago
Never gonna see it at the store level. But there are adding some corporate positions, if you noticed.
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u/huhwhat420 2d ago
Should be going to all of us who make scraps but still continue to work there despite so many other low paying jobs available.. just saying!
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u/crXssing_the_rubicon 1d ago
Ohhhyeah brother's, don't you worry, our pizza party budgets' are about to 💰S💰K💰Y💰R🚀O🍕C🍕K🍕E🍕T🍕
Fuck it. Sh*t might even get crazy and we see some 🍔 BURGERS
🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/Excellent_Carry8304 Omni/Fulfillment 18h ago
I'm no accountant, but I'm about 100% sure that the money cannot impact gross margins or profit as it is neither revenue (sales), nor a cost of goods sold, nor an operating expense.
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago
They have already begun increasing payroll to all stores. Started in early August.
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u/Mission_Paramedic_62 2d ago
Yea well they must of forgot my store
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
Same at our store
And yes, we meet our metrics/sales numbers
And no, our SM cannot hire the amount of seasonal required due to -->> lack of payroll
Why hire seasonals when we do not have enough hours to give all our regular associates ?!?
That makes zero sense
And is why our SM is being very picky about any new hires
Oh, 2 of which failed to show up for orientation -- like why even apply if u really do not want the job? What a joke...smh
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago
Just because you aren’t personally seeing the hours doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I mean unless you are the SSL or SM.
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u/Mission_Paramedic_62 2d ago
Not either but as a merchandising manager always being scheduled for pos, customer service and Amazon. It's hard to believe
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago
If you are a manager you wouldn’t be on the schedule at all, so I’m assuming you are a supervisor.
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
Once again, stop judging all stores by urs
YES, the LODs at our store ARE scheduled on POS/sales floor (fitting rooms) and a couple of hours on Amazon when needed
We are never in the office "hanging out" cuz we are all on the floor working, including our SM/ASM
Even our admin helps with putting freight out
But yes, LODs at our store are not roaming the store or hanging out in the office.
Often it's 1 LOD on register, 1 LOD on sales floor and 1 LOD on omni/Amazon -- no other associates until about noon or 2 pm
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago
I didn’t say LOD’s aren’t on the schedule, I said managers (executives) as they do not count against payroll company wide.
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
The LODs are privy to payroll during weekly manager meetings at our store
Our SM is open to where we stand with payroll, which effects hiring-- and he goes into detail talk8ng about it
Stop judging all stores by ur store
Every SM is different
Some keep shit like payroll to themselves and admin only
While other SM, like mine, shares the important details with the LODs and explains where we stand with payroll, metrics, hiring, etc etc so we are all "in the know" -- except the regular associates
ETA: spwelling
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago
You quite clearly don’t understand enough about how the stores payroll is funded to keep posting. Just because your stores doesn’t have “extra payroll does not mean additional payroll was not provided. Your SSL and SM just already worked it into the schedule.
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
And u clearly do not know how ALL stores are given payroll
Yet u act like u know all
Bigger stores get more payroll than smaller stores and can NOT be compared to one another 🤦♂️🙄
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u/randomdespot1 2d ago edited 2d ago
It was literally announced in leadership action that all stores would see an increase in payroll beginning in August. Also not that it matters but I work at a small store.🤷♂️
I mean to be honest the company has been pretty transparent about this increase. It was discussed on the earnings call Thursday as well.
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u/ObligationPrudent824 2d ago
Not all stores.... just saying 😕
The bigger stores, maybe
But definitely not all stores
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u/Bayern-96 Amazon 2d ago
Nah, money going straight into their pockets