Kohl’s To Lease Space To Planet Fitness

Kohl’s has announced that it will lease or sell retail space at 10 locations to Planet Fitness — and that number could grow in the future.

The department store has been working on how to best use its physical spaces, including right-sizing its retail footprint and considering how to rent portions of its stores to grocery and convenience stores, among others. Last year the company revealed that Aldi would be its first partner to sublet space in downsized stores.

“This kind of thinking … shows that Kohl’s understands the need to give customers reasons to visit stores and is not afraid to experiment to achieve this,” Neil Saunders, managing director of market research firm GlobalData Retail, said at the time.

As for Planet Fitness, the Associated Press reported that the gym won’t share doors with Kohl’s, but the companies will promote each other. The gyms will be between 20,000 square feet and 25,000 square feet.

Kohl’s reported Tuesday (March 5) that sales rose 1 percent at established stores during the holiday shopping season, and shares of Kohl’s rose nearly 8 percent Tuesday afternoon following the news.

The department store also reported that its Q4 profit fell 42 percent to $272 million, while its adjusted earnings per share came to $2.24, beating Wall Street expectations. But revenue fell 3 percent to $6.8 billion in the three months ending Feb. 2.

In addition to the gyms, Kohl’s said it is expanding its partnership with Amazon to sell Kindle tablets, Echo voice-activated devices and more in 200 stores. Amazon already had a presence in about 100 Kohl’s stores, but now the retailer is switching to a dedicated Amazon section where customers can help themselves.

“It will be more in a self-serve environment, which is how our customers are used to shopping us,” said Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass.

Kohl’s also has a partnership with the eCommerce giant that allows Kohl’s department store to accept Amazon returns at some of its U.S. stores.