Kohl’s In Several States Make Big Amazon Change–Is Illinois Next?

A couple of weeks back, I had several Amazon purchases that needed to be returned, but I was pressed for time and hadn't gotten around to printing out shipping labels, finding boxes to put those labels on, and then taking the boxes some place to send them on their way.

Instead, I walked into a Kohl's store and headed to the Amazon returns counter. There, two very pleasant women scanned the return code on my phone, took the items that needed to be returned to Amazon, then smiled at me and told me I was all set because they'd pack up the items and send them where they needed to go.

I think, after having done this several times with Kohl's, this is a really nice service. However, based upon what's currently going on with Kohl's stores in several other states, I'm beginning to think that it's not that convenient for Kohl's to do this.

Kohl's Began Accepting Amazon Returns Back In 2017 As A Way To Draw Foot Traffic Into Their Stores, And By 2019 They Had Expanded The Amazon Return Service To Nearly All Of Their Locations

At that time, many business "experts" applauded the move, saying that accepting Amazon returns at Kohl's stores would be a great move to positively impact the company's fortunes.

Unfortunately for Kohl's, it hasn't really worked out that way, according to ModernRetail:

Cheap and easy returns for Amazon’s massive customer base would drive foot traffic to Kohl’s storefronts, and in turn, boost sales, which the retailer desperately needed.

But the Wisconsin-based retailer never reaped the rewards. While Amazon’s sales have soared, Kohl’s same-store sales have declined for 12 straight quarters, according to company filings. In other words, Amazon hasn’t been enough to drive overall sales growth at Kohl’s.

Kohl's Is Suspending Amazon Returns In A Few Select Stores In Three States As "A Test"

The Kohl's stores that are currently refusing, or more accurately, suspending Amazon returns are in Leominster, Massachusetts; Washington, Missouri and Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinal:

The suspension of the service is taking place at a "handful of stores," said Jen Johnson, senior vice president of corporate communications for Kohl's.

"Kohl's has been providing a service to customers by accepting returns from Amazon and select other third parties across our store fleet at our Return Drop for several years. To continue to learn from our customers, we are conducting a test in a handful of our stores where we will be temporarily discontinuing the third-party returns service," Johnson said.

Kohl's hasn't said how long the test will go on, or if more Kohl's stores would be taking part going forward. If a subreddit for Kohl's employees is to be believed, many of their employees are really happy about this test.

ModernRetail:

One user commented, “I hope they do this overall, Amazon is a headache and can’t be worth it with the amount of work and man hours it takes to do it.” Another wrote, “I will literally die from happiness if this is true. Please let this be true.”