I’m not going to knock the retailing smarts of TJ Maxx, nor its cousins Marshalls (and in Canada, Winners and Homesense). I like to shop at all these places, and so do lots of other people.
But I’m curious who buys the “gourmet food” items here on display during the long line of captive customers waiting for the cashier. No doubt people do. Just as folks eat hotel room snacks if sufficiently desperate or well heeled. The prices are relatively high, the stock seems relatively old, and the gourmet aspect sometimes seems dubious. (Pink Salt and Vinegar chips, messieurs?). I see many people pick up something - then put it back as they reconsider.
What was the last snack item you bought at TJ Maxx (or equivalent)?
Those are for impulse buyers patiently waiting to pay for their stuff. They know that if people stay there long enough, some will buy those items. Most stores do this. That’s why there’s always chewing gum by the grocery store register. It’s easy to grab a pack and throw it in with the rest of your stuff. To answer your question: no, I don’t usually buy impulse items unless it happens to be what I came to the store to buy in the first place.
I worked for a gourmet food company that sold food items to the TJX stores (as well as to Whole Foods, Stonewall Kitchens, and hundreds of other gourmet and natural food stores). TJX had very high demands as to freshness, best-by dates, and quality. They were nearly as stringent as Whole Foods. You’d be surprised. Idk why the stock “seemed relatively old” to you. Did you look at the best-by dates?
We just went Christmas chopping there, and altho nothing from the “impulse cashier aisle” we always hit the gourmet foods sections. We bought a few things.
I have, in the past, occasionally purchased a few items there. Some - powdered peanut butter and licorice toffees - were hard to find elsewhere. I once bought some “Herrods Tea” there, supposedly from the famed London luxury department store, which was pricey but tasted very stale. Perhaps this is the cause of my preconception.
I’m never tempted by the stuff in cashiers’ lines, where they seem to go out of their way to stock the weirdest snacks like (fictitious) ocra flake crisps and banana nut corn chips.
I casually look at food items pretty often at TJ, Marshalls, Home Goods, Burlington, Ross, etc but they just aren’t very good deals. Melinda’s hot sauces, pastas, pinkish salt, bagged popcorn for 25% more than grocery prices. My sources indicate there are some oddball canned fish, sardines and anchovies, etc to watch for there but I haven’t hit must-have paydirt yet.
But I did buy some ground coffee at one of those places during the past summer when tariff talk was ramping so it does happen.
I’m reluctant to buy foods at those sorts of discount retailers. My impression is that they are the overstocks and food that didn’t sell. I have food handling concerts. I don’t really care if a pair of socks have been in a hot warehouse for months, but I don’t want to eat food that has a dubious history.
I love buying weird snacks at Ollie’s. They are DEFINITELY things that didn’t sell. I love a weird candy! I don’t have the same concerns as you when it comes to food handling.
In any case, Horrids tea would have been more apt. It gave me the impression TJ Maxx stocked foods that didn’t sell elsewhere. But if Kenobi65 assures me this is not true, fine. The horrible tea was within its claimed “best before” date in theory.
In the food section, Winners (Canadian subsidiary) sells spice blends, flavoured oils, upmarket teas and coffees and a random assortment of “kind of gourmet but not really” stuff. By the checkout, it is more flavoured shortbread, fancy chips and crackers and popcorn, trendy candies made of kale or ginger or without a key usual ingredient, or pricey chocolates from Dubai or elsewhere. Some of the stuff is fairly priced but other stuff is far more than what it would cost elsewhere for possibly fresher stock.
This matters more for some things than others. One dodgy market sells lots of expired foods and candies a few weeks before or years after the listed expiration date. Things like M&Ms hold up pretty well.
Me, I’m a sucker for chocolate covered macadamia nuts and will grab them if I see them. Same with dark chocolate espresso beans. And once at Christmas time I found baklavah at TJ Maxx. It wasn’t bad, but it was nothing to write home about.
