Many retailers now offer a credit card for customers to conveniently rack up points shopping in their favorite stores—or doom their credit history—whichever happens first.
One key aspect of these credit cards is that employees of these retailers, for example Old Navy or Marshalls, are frequently required to ask customers if they want to sign up for their cards. This requirement frequently makes employees themselves uncomfortable to push card sales, especially when they have a quota.
One customer of discount retailer T.J. Maxx says she was heavily pressured by an employee to sign up for the store’s credit card in a long conversation at the register, despite only having one item and repeatedly saying no.
In the video posted to TikTok by content creator Taylor Korn (@taylor.korn on TikTok), she describes the interaction as interesting, but uncomfortable.
“I have a very interesting T.J. Maxx experience,” Korn says in the video. “I was at the checkout counter and this girl comes up, she starts ringing up my stuff. Very kind. Then randomly she asks me if I’m over the age of 18. I said yes. She said, ‘Will you be checking out with a T.J. Maxx credit card today?’ No, not today.”
Korn says the worker then asked her if she wanted to apply—and wouldn’t take “no” for na answer.
“Are you interested in applying?” the worker asked. “I’m good, thank you,” Korn replied.
The worker continued her pitch. “Well, if you apply, you can get 5% off or 5% cash back, 10% off something at all these stores right here,” she continued. Korn declined again: “No, really, I’m good. Thank you though.”
“But you’re over 18, so you can apply on your own. Like, you can just apply real quick today,” the worker pushed.
“I was like, ‘No, I’m really good, thank you,’” Korn recalls. “And then she said, ‘May I ask for the reason that you’re not applying?’”
She says ultimately, she did not feel like adding another credit card to the mix from the retailer would be beneficial to her. That was when the employee explicitly shared that signing up for a credit card would be beneficial to her, specifically.
“I was like, ‘I just don’t really feel like I need it, you know? I love T.J. Maxx, but I don’t really want to open another credit card for no reason. I just don’t think I need it,’” Korn says. “And she’s like, ‘Well not only would you receive the 10% off, 5% cash back at every single one of these stores listed here, you can also help me.’”
Korn was taken aback.
She only had one item that she was attempting to purchase at the counter, the conversation had taken much longer than she expected the transaction to. She says she found the situation uncomfortable. The employee clarified that she meant that she could help her meet her quota of people she needs to sign up for credit cards through the retailer.
“I appreciate the honesty, but it was just weird,” she says. “I’m making something out of nothing, but I just wanted to talk about it because I thought it was very strange.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Taylor via comment on the video and TikTok direct message, in addition to the TJX parent company of T.J. Maxx via email.
Another customer has taken to TikTok to call out managers of their local T.J. Maxx store for pressuring its frequently high school-aged employees to sell credit cards to unsuspecting shoppers, regardless of whether opening a new credit card is actually the right decision for them to make. In the comments section of that video, current and former employees of other retail operations like J.C. Penney, Kohls, and Ulta shared that they were similarly pressured to push credit cards to customers in their stores as well.
Several viewers commented on Taylor’s video regarding the employee’s cry for help, wondering what kind of consequences they were facing if they did not reach their quota for cards.
“‘Help me’ What are the TJ Maxx managers doing to these employees,” one commenter wrote.
“I feel bad for the employees tho cause I know they’re mandated to get ppl to sign up,” another commented. “If they don’t they get in trouble.”
“I previously worked there, we would get written up if we didn’t push them!” a third said.
@taylor.korn i love tjmaxx but i just had a VERY STRANGE interaction with the checkout lady. just wanted to share #tjmaxx #creditcard ♬ original sound – Taylor Korn
Others shared their own responses to the question that they found shut down the line of questioning most effectively early on in the transaction.
“I just say I’m buying a house and can’t open credit cards right now,” one commented. “At this point, I’ve been buying a house for the past five years.”
“I always tell them I have the card and it’s maxed out,” a second wrote.
“I always say that my identity has been stolen so I can’t apply for new credit,” a further user said. “Works every time. Lol.”
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