Kohl’s announced Tuesday it will be shuttering all of its Off/Aisle discount stores four years after opening the first location.
The four stores, one in New Jersey and three in Wisconsin, will close on Aug. 3, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Executive Vice President Jon Grosso sent a memo to employees Tuesday that stated the outlet stores were closing not because they were unpopular, but because there was not enough inventory to stock the shelves. He cited “improvements in inventory management” at Kohl’s department stores as a reason.
"While we've learned a lot from the tests, we also learned that our strength and ongoing improvements in inventory management across the company do not allow us to appropriately stock Off/Aisle stores at scale," wrote Gross in the memo, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gross said employees at Off/Aisle stores can transfer to a nearby Kohl’s.
The retailer launched the discount outlet stores in 2015 as an experiment to compete with other off-price retail companies such as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. The goal was to sell items customers had returned to regular Kohl’s stores at a discounted price.
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The announcement comes as more than 4,800 U.S. stores — including icons such as J.C. Penney, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dressbarn, among others — are set to close by the end of this year. Several retailers admitted they're seeing struggling sales amid the rise of e-commerce.
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