Married Kohl’s CEO affair with a Walmart exec was retail’s dirty little secret. When it was exposed, it upended retail

Kohl’s CEO Ashley Buchanan’s affair with former Walmart executive Chandra Holt was retail’s dirty little secret – until he was fired for bolstering her business.

Buchanan, 51, was fired by Kohl's earlier this month after an investigation revealed he had brokered a deal for the department store to sell products from 45-year-old Holt’s coffee startup, Incredibrew, an explosive report in The Wall Street Journal detailed.

The terms of the deal, which were “unusual” and favorable to Incredibrew, raised red flags for some employees. Buchanan was ultimately fired for breaking the retailer’s ethics code by failing to disclose his relationship with Holt.

While there was gossip among employees about a potential romance between Buchanan and Holt dating back years, Kohl’s Chairman Michael Bender, who had worked with the pair at Walmart a decade ago, was left out of the loop.

During a meeting, Bender demanded to know if he was dating Holt, to which Buchanan replied “yes,” according to the report.

The relationship, an open secret for years as the pair worked at Walmart and later craft store Michaels, culminated in the pair each filing for divorce from their respective spouses in 2020.

Soon after, they moved into a $3 million stone house at the Vaquero Club, a wealthy Dallas suburb teeming with mansions, where they would be seen playing tennis together.

Court records also showed that an extramarital affair between Holt and Buchanan had a role in her divorce, according to the report.

Two bosses of major retailers

Both Buchanan and Holt had been in charge of major retailers over the years, with her leading Bed Bath & Beyond and another smaller Texas company.

She had also started Incredibrew and was marketing it to both Kohl’s and Michaels while Buchanan was running them.

The pair mostly kept quiet about their relationship, according to people who worked with them and court documents. When Michaels tried to recruit Holt for a senior role soon after Buchanan became CEO in 2020, he didn’t disclose their relationship, one person familiar with the matter told the WSJ. Holt declined to take the job.

Buchanan also failed to disclose his relationship with Holt to some merchants, who decide what products the store sells customers, when Michaels decided to add Incredibrew to its stores, according to the report.

When he was fired by Kohl’s, Buchanan claimed he just made introductions for merchants but never required them to buy any specific products, one person who spoke with him said.

Legal repercussions

Kohl’s announced Buchanan’s firing on May 1, saying an investigation by outside lawyers found he had violated the company’s ethics code and helped arrange a deal to sell Holt’s coffee products.

Buchanan had dictated the payment terms and the order was for hundreds of Kohl’s stores, according to the report.

Kohl’s also noted the deal’s terms were “unusual” and favorable to the vendor, according to the report.

The investigation also uncovered that Buchanan had caused Kohl’s to enter a multimillion-dollar consulting agreement with Boston Consulting Group, where Holt served as an advisor at the time.

When interviewed for the investigation, Holt said she’d known Buchanan for 10 years and they weren’t romantically involved when Michaels was trying to hire her. She also said her new business, Incredibrew, hadn’t been compensated by Kohl’s.

Boston Consulting Group later terminated Holt’s contract as a result of the non-disclosure.

Walmart beginnings

Buchanan and Holt met in 2015 when she took a job as a vice president with Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain owned by Walmart. At the time, Buchanan was running Walmart’s dry grocery business.

When Holt later went on to work for Walmart, she, her then-husband and their daughter moved into a home in the Pinnacle Country Club, a gated golf community hear headquarters, where Buchanan also lived with his wife and three daughters.

In 2017, Buchanan was named chief merchant for Sam’s Club, making him Holt’s boss. A few months later, she was also promoted to lead Sam’s Club grocery business.

A year later, she left his group when she was appointed chief operating officer of the chain’s website.

This is a developing story…