Bismarck Should Be Concerned That Kohl’s Is Up For Sale.

Is it another empty Gordman's type building in Bismarck's future?

For the record, two years ago Gordman's parent company Stage Stores filed for bankruptcy.  Businesses and individuals bounce back from bankruptcy all the time. Gordman's did not.  Now a pretty new building in a pretty great retail location sits empty waiting for its next purpose.  Things like that can happen with next to zero local control.

Kohl's has hung up the for sale sign and offers are coming in.

Did you know that with over a thousand stores in the United States, Kohl's is the largest department store retailer in the US?  I did see one article declaring it was Macy's. Many years back, Macy's was rumored to roll in the Kirkwood Mall when Marshall Fields rolled out. Pretty sure Macy's still not going to make it here to Bismarck. But...

Will Kohl's stick around?

That'll be the prerogative of a big-time holdings company called Franchise Group. They've offered $60 a share totaling in the neighborhood of $8 billion for the deal. There are other financial suitors for Kohls but so far Franchise is leading the pack. Kohl's stock on Monday 6/13/22 dropped about five bucks to $40.85. Honestly, if I'm a Kohl's stockholder I'd like to hop off the train and take that $60 offer.

As shown by the company's name franchising is kind of what they do.

Would it be an asset grab or would they try to overhaul the operation and relaunch the whole darn thing? Seems unlikely, but the next few weeks will tell us more if the offer is accepted.  It's interesting to me that originally big box stores were crushing local business.  Online shopping came in to crush the big box stores unless, of course, you're Walmart, Target, or Amazon. But you know what I see popping up all over the place?

A growing number of new locally-owned specialty boutiques across the region.

Interesting.