• The Wall Street Journal , Wednesday, October 1, 2008 11:45 AM

Kohl's is opening 46 stores today as part of an aggressive effort to take market share from competitors. It also plans to boost spending on holiday-season marketing -- especially online advertising -- and trim inventory to cut costs. But in a sign of the times, Kohl's has scaled back plans announced last year to have 1,400 stores by 2012, according to CEO Kevin Mansell, which would have worked out to just over 100 new stores a year on average. The company is aiming for 50 stores next year, Mansell says.

I'm a fan of Kohl's. More than once, I've left the place with an armful of good-quality clothing for less than $100 by combining markdowns with a 30%-off scratch-off coupon and a seemingly inexplicable additional 10% off just for using my Kohl's card. But I have heard myself mutter, "Whoa, hold on. How can you afford to stay in business?"

It must be working though, right? Then again, it's hard to take anything at face value these days. Seems like just a couple of years ago we were reading stories about how great Steve and Barry's retailing concept was. In fact, it was. Note to Kohl's PR Dept.: I'm not equating the two at all. Just saying that in this environment, it's hard for consumers - or analysts, or reporters -- to know what to believe.

As Andrew Ross Sorkin pointed out in Tuesday's Times , it was only a couple of weeks ago that Wachovia CEO Robert K. Steele was crowing to CNBC's Jim Kramer about "the very exciting prospects when we get things right going forward." The piece was titled "What Goes Before a Fall? On Wall Street, Reassurance." ;

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »