KOHL'S started as a grocery chain, when it was taken over, a controlling interest by BAT, in 1972 there were 50 grocery stores and 6 department stores and some others.

The grocery stores were sold to A&P in 1983 and eventually shut down in 2003.

Meanwhile the department store side, kept growing. A group of investors, led by the senior management, purchased the company in 1986 which was 40 department stores at the time.

Personally the only time I shop there is for shoes. Sneakers in the Fall and boots in the Spring. The discounts are quite substantial, even if the prices go from the normal discounted to list price, before they get marked down. Last Sketchers cost me $12 and the New Balance run about half what people sell them for used on eBay. Zipper boots, close out, under $30.

Yeah good trick, mark things back to list price and then discount. Anyone ever go to Harbor Freight? They got sued (people have nothing to do but start lawsuits?) when someone claimed they never sold anything at list price. LOL

(2018) "In March, Harbor Freight Tools and consumers reached a settlement over a class action lawsuit claiming that the tool company falsely advertised “normal” prices for products that were higher than an advertised “sale” price, when the item had never been offered at the original, higher price.

Consumers claimed that this practice misled them into thinking that the item was on sale and they were getting a deal. "

KOHL's 2019:

The plaintiff alleges that she would not have purchased the discounted items if she had been aware of the price-comparison scheme perpetrated by Kohl’s.

As an example, the plaintiff notes that she purchased a number of items that were on sale from their “Original” and “Regular” prices. She now states that these prices were misleading because Kohl’s never offered these items at the prices they say were “Original” and “Regular.”

emphasis mine in both instances

eBay? The world's largest fence? Or eBay the wacky place were you can find an endless supply of reproduction prints of posters, photos and the like, listed as "authentic".