T.J. Maxx

T.J. Maxx

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1976 (1976)
Founder	Bernard Cammarata
Headquarters	Framingham, Massachusetts, United States
Number of locations	1,119 (end of 2014)[1]
Products	Clothing, footwear, bedding and domestics, furniture and giftware
Parent	TJX Companies
Website	tjmaxx.tjx.com/store/index.jsp

T.J. Maxx store, Ypsilanti, Michigan

T.J. Maxx, Peabody, Massachusetts

T.J. Maxx, often styled T.J.Maxx, is an American department store chain. With more than 1,000 stores, T.J. Maxx is one of the largest clothing retailers in the United States.^[2]

The company is part of the TJX Companies, which also owns HomeGoods/HomeSense, and 'off-price' retail chains Sierra Trading Post in the United States, Marshalls in the U.S. and Canada, and Winners in Canada. Under the name T.K. Maxx, its parent company TJX operates stores throughout the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and The Netherlands.^[3] It offers men's, women's and children's apparel and shoes, as well as other areas such as toys, bath and beauty, accessories, and home products ranging from furniture to kitchen utensils.

T.J. Maxx and Marshalls operate as sister stores, and share a similar footprint throughout the country. While the two operate at near-identical price points and have similar store layouts, T.J. Maxx differentiates itself from Marshalls by having a more upscale appearance and typically features an expanded assortment of both fine jewelry and accessories. Some higher-volume stores feature a high-end designer department called The Runway.

The CEO of TJX companies is Ernie Herrman.^[4]

History

In 1976, T.J. Maxx was founded in Framingham, Massachusetts by Bernard Cammarata, as a nameplate of the Zayre chain of discount department stores. When Zayre sold their own nameplate to Ames, a rival discount department store, Zayre was renamed as "TJX Companies, Incorporated".

In March 2009, its e-commerce site was launched at first only selling handbags. The range of products has now been expanded and includes clothing, shoes, jewelry, other accessories, and some homegoods.^[5]

2007 Security Breach leading to credit card fraud

In March 2007, the company was at the centre of major credit card fraud which affected its international operations. Details of customers' credit cards and debit cards were accessed by computer hackers, exposing more than 100 million^[6] customers to potential theft from their accounts.^[7] According to the company, this affected customers who used their card between January 2003 and June 2004 at any branch of T.J. Maxx.^[8] Details were stolen by hackers installing software via wi-fi^[9] in June 2005 that allowed them to access personal information on customers. The breach continued until January 2007.^[10]

Affected TJX stores included TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Winners, HomeSense, AJWright, KMaxx, Bob's Stores in the United States and Puerto Rico, Winners and HomeGoods stores in Canada, and possibly TKMaxx stores in the UK and Ireland.

Eleven people from around the world were charged with the breach in 2008.^[11] Outside security provider Protegrity has estimated that T.J. Maxx's losses as a result of the data breach may reach £800 million in the years to come. The losses would come as a result of paying for credit checks and administrative costs for managing the fallout from the breach.^[12]

The company today

Business Insider described T.J. Maxx as "Macy's worst nightmare" in an oft-quoted 2016 article^[13] by Mallory Schlossberg. In a later article Schlossberg also reported on how T.J. Maxx's soaring sales "should be concerning for ailing department stores that are fighting to get people to pay full price."^[14] As off-price retailers are becoming an increasing threat to traditional department stores^[15] signaling a change in consumer buying habits^[16] T.J. Maxx's revenue grew to surpass that of Macy's.^[17] According to The Economist, "the overheads at TJX and Ross are, as a percentage of sales, about half those of Macy’s or Nordstrom."^[18]

Data theft

In 2007, the company disclosed a computer security breach dating back to 2005. Hackers gained access to information on more than 45 million credit and debit card accounts for transactions since January 2003.^[19]

The T.J. Maxx Corporation was sued by the Massachusetts Bankers Association and co-plaintiffs including Maine and Connecticut Associated Banks for the data theft. In March 2010, Albert Gonzalez, a computer hacker, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after confessing to stealing credit and debit card details from a number of companies, including T.J. Maxx.^[20]

Charity work

In December 2014, T.J. Maxx started raising money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Notes

External links

• T.J. Maxx official web site
• The TJX Companies official web site