Maxwell Kohl

Maxwell Kohl was a Polish Jewish immigrant who arrived in Milwaukee and worked in factories until 1927, when at age 26 he opened a corner grocery store. He built a 48-store supermarket chain before selling it in 1970, then entered department store retail in 1962 based on his own frustrating experience trying to buy a shirt. He applied supermarket efficiencies — customer service discipline, inventory management, and lower overhead — to department stores, creating a formula that offered lower prices than high-end stores with higher quality than discounters.

Maxwell Kohl came to the United States from Poland and worked in factories in the Milwaukee area until 1927, when he used his savings to open a small grocery store at Lincoln Avenue and Kinnickinnic Avenue in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood. The business grew through the Depression, and in 1946 he opened the first supermarket in Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood featuring then-novel services like an in-store bakery and deli. By 1970, he had built a chain of 48 supermarkets across Wisconsin, which he sold that year. Dissatisfied with his own shopping experiences, he opened the first Kohl's department store in 1962 in Brookfield, Wisconsin, applying supermarket efficiencies to department store retail. By 1972, the Kohl family enterprise included 56 supermarkets, 6 department stores, 3 drug stores, and 3 liquor stores. That year, the family sold a controlling interest to British American Tobacco. Maxwell Kohl retired; his son Herbert Kohl became a U.S. Senator and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks; and his son Sidney became a successful real estate developer in Florida.