# Buying Snacks At TJ Maxx
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 15, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699 "2025-12-15T00:32:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/1 "2025-12-15T00:32:24Z")
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)?**
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### Author:  [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/2 "2025-12-15T00:43:56Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/3 "2025-12-15T01:03:47Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/4 "2025-12-15T01:09:08Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> What was the last snack item you bought at TJ Maxx (or equivalent)?
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.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/5 "2025-12-15T01:24:12Z")
I always put “random snacks” on the shopping list. That way, I can truthfully say I never make impulse buys.
😇
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/6 "2025-12-15T01:27:36Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> I always put “random snacks” on the shopping list.
hmmm, I think I’ll start finishing off my shopping list with ‘and a bunch of stuff from the check out area’.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/7 "2025-12-15T01:46:39Z")
In fairness, I did not look at the dates.
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.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/8 "2025-12-15T01:53:07Z")
My daughter just brought home Jelly Bellies for the kids stockings from there.
I looked closely at the pkg. Looked ok to me. And priced fairly, I believe.
I’ll let you know on Xmas morning if they complain of staleness.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/9 "2025-12-15T11:52:51Z")
I believe all the UK supermarkets put items such as chocolate next to the checkout queue.
No doubt aimed at children particularly…
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### Author:  [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/10 "2025-12-15T15:21:21Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/11 "2025-12-15T17:18:22Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/12 "2025-12-15T20:26:27Z")
> [@glee](#):
>
> I believe all the UK supermarkets put items such as chocolate next to the checkout queue.
> No doubt aimed at children particularly…
Several of them have stopped doing so in recent years, and have made a big fuss about it. It’s still pretty nearby, of course.
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#):
>
> “Herrods Tea”
I’m hoping that was a typo for Harrods, not Herod’s. I feel the latter- although seasonal- may be ethically questionable.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/13 "2025-12-15T20:31:59Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> 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 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.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/14 "2025-12-15T23:34:34Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/15 "2025-12-16T17:06:56Z")
Did anyone else misread it as _“”slacks?_
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2025, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/16 "2025-12-16T17:57:09Z")
You’re better off buying sticks at J.P. Licks.
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### Author:  [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)
#### Post date: [December 16, 2025, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/17 "2025-12-16T18:09:46Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/18 "2025-12-18T19:17:24Z")
> [@filmore](#):
>
> I have food handling concerts
Are you going to do a stadium tour?
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### Author:  [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/19 "2025-12-22T03:28:49Z")
My local Kohls redid the checkout area to have an single lane aisle leading to the cashiers (similar to TJ Maxx) with food and small items that they cram on the shelves. I figured it was for impulse buying for the adults (didn’t know I needed Burt’s Bees lip balm but after seeing it now I do) or for kids to throw a fit until their parents agree to buy the trinket.
Easy way to increase sales with a secondary usage for floor space that was required for checkouts.
As for freshness of these food items? Sorry, I am not much of an impulse buyer for these items to have bought any. My wife likes shopping at Kohls (“I got a coupon for $10 off if I spend $30 that I need to use in the next week”) so maybe next time there I will grab a food item package and check the best by/use through dates.
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### Author:  [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-snacks-at-tj-maxx/1025699/20 "2025-12-22T03:49:03Z")
My husband brought home a marked down container of gourmet Waygu beef flavored kettle chips from a trip to Winners in July. We forgot all about them until last week and were a little wary when we opened them, but they weren’t stale. They were yummy!
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