In the latest edition of Omni Talk’s Retail Fast Five, sponsored by the A&M Consumer and Retail Group, Avalara, Mirakl, Ownit AI, and Ocampo Capital Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga discuss: Ashley Buchanan Named New Kohl’s CEO

For the full episode head here: https://youtu.be/xDKKCu9Alfk

Headline number two, which also is about a new CEO.

And so it's kind of apropos or very, very a nice segue here we've got going.

Wonder if that was planned.

And you think so?

I don't know.

Pretzel.

All right.

According to retail Dive, the new department store.

You're just patting yourself on the back.

I don't like Chris.

I'm patting myself on the back.

I'm just like saying, this is what we did, you know.

Okay, okay.

According to the retail.

I think I said the new department store Kohl's is anything but new.

The department store Kohl's has tapped Michael CEO Ashley Buchanan to lead the retailer beginning early next year, replacing Tom Kingsbury, effective January 15th.

And what do you think of Buchanan as the new CEO hire for Kohl's?

Oh, man, I, you know, I think he's, he's a, he's a great person for this job.

I will especially be looking to his time at Walmart to help Kohl's grow.

Cause I think that's a similar customer demographic.

It's a similar income demographic and product set realistically for where Kohl's really needs to be strong.

But Chris, my question is actually like, after Kingsbury leaving, I mean, we thought he was pretty decent too.

I'm just one.

And the earnings, I mean, I'm just curious, what is there to do?

Like, how can you save this?

And so my tell will really be, how long does Ashley Buchanan stay there after, like, is he going to be a year in and out?

Because there's really no salvaging what's left of Kohl's right now.

Or does he.

Do we start to see things turn around from him?

But I think it's the right person for the job, the right background for the job, especially given the similar customer demographics that I mentioned.

But where do you fall on this?

Where are you?

Yeah, I, I think you're bringing up a good point.

Yeah, I actually think he maybe jumped ship too early, going back to the first headline, because I think I said like three or four months ago that he'd be a good candidate to take over for Cornell at Target.

But now that ship is essentially sailed and I think it is an uphill battle, you know.

You know, to your point about Kingsbury, I thought, you know, I always questioned his hire because he was From Burlington.

I called him Burlington Tom for a while.

Like, again, that guy doesn't have a lot of digital experience.

And so what did he do?

He did the things he knew.

He brought Baby into the store because Burlington was a success of Baby.

But like, we actually hypothesized back.

I remember when we were doing this podcast at Shop Talk Europe, we're looking at Cole's second quarter earnings.

We're like, oh, my God, this is only going to get worse.

And look, here we are now.

It did.

And their earnings report yesterday said that sales were down 9% comparably in the last quarter.

So that's.

That's crazy.

But on paper, Buchanan looks like the right guy.

He's done a great job at Michael's.

Like, he's done a good job there.

And he.

He also listens to our show.

So, you know, kudos to him for that.

But, you know, so he.

But he's definitely got his job cut out to him.

I'm not sure there's anything you can do with Coles at this point, though, but I wish him the best of luck and.

And I think he'll like that we're saying this to him, but we are going to objectively comment on what we see him try to do here going forward.

Yeah, but I think he's got the right chops to lead this type of retailer, too.

That's the last point I'd say on, which is like, you know, if you look at what Michael's done, they've expanded their marketplace pretty broadly.

They've created an experience platform to coordinate events in their stores for parties, for dates, for meetups.

They allow makers into their stores as well.

So they have extended their brand in a way that people didn't think was possible.

And that's the kind of thing that today's leader needs.

I said this to a consultant this week.

You have to understand as an executive how to use digital to extend the relationship with your brand.

Yeah.

And that's what I think.

Yeah.

And that he's willing to test that kind of stuff like you're talking about in the stores and.

And figure out, not just testing it, but okay, if we're going to deploy this, this makers Marketplace in store, like, how are we going to scale that realistically?

Because that's a very hard thing to do.

And so I think that that, to me, shows that he's at least willing to.

To hopefully try some things.

Like, you're saying that incorporate digital, that allow Kohl's to scale some of these initiatives quickly to hopefully save that business.

Yeah.

And you have to have that mindset, and that's the reverse engine of your bicycle.

Remember that analogy we used to talk about a lot learning Omnichannel retail is learning how to ride a bike that is reverse engineered to.

When you want to go to the right, you have to turn the handlebars to the left.

People with digital.

Yeah, people with digital mindsets like he has that have grown up in E commerce have that legacy.

Merchants that have grown up in 20 years inside an organization are not likely to have that.

And that's what the boards have to realize.