I hit Nordstrom’s Rack for shoes especially. It’s only really organized early in the day, before customers start flinging shoes and such around like confetti.
I’m tall so there’s a good selection of shoes for my proportionately larger feet. It’s wonderful-- 3 or 4 hundred dollar shoes for nearly a tenth the price, and they’re well-made and fit! Finally it’s the 7/8 size women are the ones lamenting.
Our local area TJMaxx and such are awful. Ripped, dirty clothes all over the store, especially trampled on the floor. Rude clerks and lines stretching to the back of the store. Pretty much like all other chain stores around here.
Their are four or five TJ Maxx within the twenty mile radius that is my usual habitat. Each has a huge assortment of men’s shirts, all sorted by size. Name brands, and approximately 50% off. Unlike the OP, I know what neck & sleeve length I need, and how different manufacturers cut their shirts, so there’s no need to try them on. I haven’t noticed huge savings on underwear & socks and I wear few other accessories like ties.
The men’s pants selection at every Maxx I’ve visited is sorely lacking and tend heavily toward golf-plaids or cargo pants with little in the middle. Dress pants are almost non-existent unless you want 100% polyester. I haven’t shopped them for outerwear but picked up several fleece jackets comparable to EMS a few years ago for about $6 each. Marshall’s seems comparable to me, but I’m a man. My only determining factor for choosing a store is the prices.
Anybody ever go to Tuesday Morning? They never seem to have a complete set of anything, but like Ellen Cherry’s Easter platter, they have a great selection of random stuff. (Pillows, silk flower arrangements, napkins and tablecloths that are unlike any I’ve seen anywhere else.)
There’s a Tuesday Morning near me that I hit pretty regularly. It’s definitely another store that’s great for the random find and not so much for the specific need. However, I’ve seen the same merchandise at Tuesday Morning that was priced two times what it was selling for at Big Lots. Just because it’s at Tuesday Morning does not automatically mean it’s a bargain. I suspect that’s the case with a lot of these places. OTH, they don’t really lend themselves to comparison shopping.
I go to Tuesday Morning pretty regularly and … funny story about the mismatched stuff — we found dishes that we absolutely fell in love with. They’re a discontinued pattern called Safari made by National Geographic Home, and our store just had the serving bowls and a few random pieces. We kept going there every week waiting for them to get more in and get it out on the shelves. My husband was the truly dedicated one; they’d see him coming and point him to the new shipments. Finally he got tired of all that nonsense and got a list of all the Tuesday Mornings in the tri-state area. He took a day off work and hit them all, and we got a complete set of 12 place settings, plus several extra bowls, etc., as replacements!
Ah the mighty hunter, on big-game safari at Tuesday Morning!
I work the “store brands” racks at Nordstrom Rack. I skip the racks of the same t-shirts or sweaters and go for the racks full of mismatched, onsey-twosies.
The Tuesday Morning in my neighborhood is literally in a basement. It’s frightening.
I love TJ Maxx. The ones around here are always clean, well-stocked, etc. But I’m a woman, and I love to browse, so YMMV.
The one thing I’ve noticed about Ross is that the quality of the merchandise varies depending on the wealthiness of the neighborhood. Here in Los Angeles, the best Ross’s to hit are in Westwood and West L.A. In the middle/lower class neighborhoods, the selection and deals are worse.
He took a day off work and hit them all, and we got a complete set of 12 place settings, plus several extra bowls, etc., as replacements!