The company was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl, who opened a corner grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1927.

He positioned Kohl's between the higher-end department stores and the discounters, selling everything from candy to engine oil to sporting equipment.

Herb Kohl left the management in 1979,[14] eventually becoming a United States senator and owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

In 1988, the chain acquired 26 locations from the Chicago-based retailer MainStreet, gaining several stores in Chicago's suburbs, the Twin Cities, and Michigan.

[21][22] Kohl's completed its initial public offering on May 19, 1992, and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol KSS.

[26] To raise money to repurchase its stock and open new stores, Kohl's sold its credit card division in 2006 to J.P. Morgan Chase for $1.5 billion.

[37] In the same year, Kohl's requested financing from the village of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, to fund the construction of its new headquarters there.

[40] In early January 2017, Kohl's shares fell 19% in value, in what The Wall Street Journal said was "the stock's worst day on record," and noted that it was a noticeable exception to the overall declining volatility of the market.

[41] The company ranked 157th on the 2018 Fortune 500, the annual list of the largest United States corporations, having earned revenues of $19.095 billion in 2017.

[44] On March 16, 2022, it was announced that Hudson's Bay Company and Sycamore Partners were considering bids to buy Kohl's, which its shares jumped 17%.

[45] On April 25, 2022, it was announced that Simon Property Group and Brookfield Asset Management, the owners of JCPenney, had set an offer to buy Kohl's.

[51] Kohl's store brands include diffusion lines from high-end designers such as Dana Buchman, Vera Wang,[52] Narciso Rodriguez,[53] and Peter Som.

[54] Celebrities such as Avril Lavigne, Lauren Conrad, Daisy Fuentes, Paula DeAnda, Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Marc Anthony, and Tony Hawk have sold branded clothing exclusively through Kohl's.