A T.J. Maxx shopper’s viral TikTok is putting the store’s products under a microscope. In her TikTok that was viewed over 784,000 times, Abi (@glow.by.abireeves) claims that beauty and skincare products being at the discount department store are either recalled or part of bad batches.
“Finding out that everything [T.J.] Maxx sells is just products with missing ingredients or recalled,” Abi says via a text overlay.
She showcases how she is in the beauty and skincare aisle and is holding a skincare kit. T.J. Maxx is known for selling name-brand beauty, skincare, and hair products at a more affordable price. That understandably begs the question: How is T.J. Maxx able to do that? (We’ll get to that in a second.)
Despite her believing the products are recalled or missing crucial ingredients, the content creator isn’t letting that stop her from enjoying those sweet discount deals. “Yeaa.. ill still be buying all the [shelves] everytime,” she notes in the caption.
The Daily Dot reached out to Abi via TikTok comment and direct message as well, as to T.J. Maxx via press email.
Viewers have mixed reactions
Some T.J. Maxx shoppers claimed that the real reason those products are at the store has everything to do with overstock.
“That’s not true. A lot of it is overstock from companies that make a lot of a product and have overstock,” one viewer wrote.
Workers of TJX Companies, which owns Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, and HomeGoods, also weighed in.
“I work at marshalls and this is not true everything that’s been recalled is locked up in the stock room it won’t be on the shelves,” another added.
“I work at tj and that is def not true!! I’ve seen products that sold other places at this present moment that are also sold at tj maxx!” a third defended.
However, others still felt something was off with their T.J. Maxx products.
“I got a box of honey pot tampons and the applicators were on backwards so it literally did not work,” one user shared.
“One time i saw a bubble bath solution and when i googled it, the company had gone bankrupt a whileeeee ago,” a second recalled.
@glow.by.abireeves yeaa.. ill still be buying all the sheleves everytime 😔 #tjmaxx #tjmaxxfinds #tjmaxxshopping #fyp #skincare #haircare #shopping #retailtherapy ♬ original sound – †
Does T.J. Maxx sell recalled products?
While T.J. Maxx, Homegoods, and Marshalls were caught selling 1,200 recalled items from 2014-2019, that’s not the company’s usual business model.
“At TJX, product safety is very important to us and we prohibit the sale of recalled items in our stores. We deeply regret that in some instances between 2014 and 2019, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place,” the company said at the time. “We have made a significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen our processes, and have cooperated fully with the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
So how is T.J. Maxx able to sell name-brand products at a lower price?
So T.J. Maxx isn’t selling products that have been recalled or are from a bad batch. Then, how is the store able to sell name-brand products at a lower price?
T.J. Maxx confirms on its site that it buys and sells overstock merchandise. It also takes advantage of department store cancelations and closeout deals. A closeout deal, it explains, is “when a vendor wants to clear merchandise at the end of a season.”
“The majority of products we sell are high quality, fashionable, brand name, and designer merchandise generally sold at prices 20%-60% less than full-price retailers’ regular prices on comparable merchandise. Most of our merchandise is fashionable, current season styles. A small percentage is past season, or timeless classics, which we also offer at amazing savings,” it notes on its site.
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