<Tr> <Th> Number of employees </Th> <Td> 138,000 (2016) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Website </Th> <Td> www.kohls.com </Td> </Tr> <P> Kohl's is an American department store retailing chain . The first Kohl's store was a corner grocery store opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1927 by Maxwell Kohl . The company's first department store opened in September 1962 . British American Tobacco Company took a controlling interest in the company in 1972, and in 1979, the Kohl family left the management of the company . A group of investors purchased the company in 1986 from British - American Tobacco and took it public in 1992 . </P> <P> The company is headquartered in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, operating 1,155 stores in 49 states (The only state it does not operate in is Hawaii). Kohl's is America's largest department store chain by the number of stores as of February 2013--surpassing its biggest competitor, J.C. Penney in May 2012 . In 1998, it entered the S&P 500 list, and is also listed in the Fortune 500 (#146 in 2012). The chain was the 20th - largest retailer in the United States in 2013 in terms of revenue . As of 2013, Kohl's was the second largest U.S. department store company by retail sales . </P>

What type of store is kohls considered to be