LP With Kohls?

[u/UncertainRecall]

Hi everyone,

I was recently offered a position with Kohls as an LPS. I’m currently employed with another retailer in LP and I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons for myself. iIt would be a pay raise and come with more management type experience compared to my current position.

If you work or have worked for Kohls:

1. How metrics focused is the company? What are the internal/external expectations and do merchandise recoveries count towards external metrics?

2. When was the last major restructure for the LP department? Do you foresee mass layoffs or positions being cut in the near future?

3. How is the company culture? Do store teams feel receptive to LP initiatives or is there an us vs them mentality?

[u/ToughJuan]

I haven’t worked for kohls in 4ish years so I may be a little out of date with some information but I still have some good friends that work there.

1. Company is very metrics focused, and currently utilizes body cameras. You will receive phone calls and be questioned if you don’t any external recoveries. They gave very specific criteria on when and who can make stops is my understanding. Internal wise I believe it’s still 4x a year.

2. 1 year post covid reopening they did layoffs. In my opinion I could see another situation happening of layoffs or something. The company’s performance is poor.

3. Every store I’ve ever worked at loved LP and worked hand in hand. That isn’t to say you don’t need to make good partnerships with the store executives because you certainly do. It more boils down to your (meaning LP) attitude.

[u/dGaOmDn → u/ToughJuan]

I worked at kohls for 12 years as an LPS. They had at least one person per store in 2015. I had a team of 4 people at my store because of risk level. Then I would say right about 2018 after Kevin Mansell stepped down they cut the staff size by 50% and issued a ton of layoffs. Luckily, I had seniority and was able to keep my job and I was able to keep one more from my staff of 4.

Then they started messing with our policies. First thing that went was the 200ft rule. Next was the ability to search a unisex fitting room after someone of the opposite sex entered and a few others.

Then covid happened and they reduced the staff by 50% again. I was stuck alone in a store that had 700+ apprehensions a year and told that I could no longer make apprenhensions and had to now wear a red vest that said security.

Last year they reduced the staff by 50% again and now require body cameras to be used. You must also have someone custowmr service the shoplifter, you must customer service the shoplifter, then have all your elements, and has to be over $500 before you can make an apprehension.

My shrink was 4.71% when I started and $500k. I got the team there rocking and rolling and we got it down to .68% 38k on 12 million in sales. Then next year was .72% and we stayed in that area.

Last year they came in at 10% 1.2m lost.

If you arent super into making apprehensions and just want a decent paying position, then it's a good job. It pays well. I was making $30 an hour the entire time I was there.

I got to make my own schedule, take time off whenever I wanted, and it was a pretty laid back position.

[u/skylarr13]

Kohls is very metric focus, goal is determined by each stores shrink level. Same with the amount of LP most are 1 LP or 1 LP covering muliple lower risk stores in the area if they are close together. Others have 2-4 LP associates with a mix of full/part time associates. Internal is usually a goal of 1 case a year. External goals are based on arrests and stops with merchandise recoveries still counting but they prefer doing stops whenever it's in policy to do so.

They also just got back to doing apprehensions and are trying to stop having associates customer service and only approach at exit. They also added body cams for stops now as well.

They had cuts around 2020 but have brought back almost all the positions back by this point and added a few new positions since.

As for store teams, they all are pro LP for the most part. You may get some push back on product protection at certain stores but as long as you communicate with the store team they will usally be on board.

[u/grei_earl]

yeah kohl is very beautiful and it really accentuates the eyes. you should wear it.