4 T.J. Maxx Clearance Secrets Revealed by an Employee
T.J. Maxx is a treasure trove for discounted home decor, fashion accessories, and designer brands. And in this economy, what more could you ask for from your favorite budget-friendly retailer? After nearly a decade of working at T.J. Maxx, former employee Bena Solomon is spilling the tea about the store’s clearance section—including why duplicate items are given different prices. Keep reading for her top four secrets.
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1
A machine dictates which items are marked down, not the employees.
“We as workers do not decide how an item gets marked down,” Solomon said on TikTok. “We scan the ticket and whatever comes out, that’s the price.”
That’s why some items may ring up at a cheaper price at checkout, depending on the system’s internal pricing model.
2
An item’s markdown price is based on when it arrived at the store.
Have you ever come across two of the same items, but with different price tags? According to Solomon, that isn’t a faux pas.
“If it’s the same exact item, but they’re marked down for two different prices, it has to do with when they came into the store,” she revealed. For instance, “if one yellow dress came in a month before the other yellow dress, the one that came in first gets the lower markdown,” she further explained.
RELATED: 10 Items You Should Never Buy at T.J. Maxx.
3
Clearance items can only be returned if you have both the ticket and the receipt.
T.J. Maxx’s return policy is different for regular-priced items than for clearance items.
Customers with a store receipt have a 30-day grace period to exchange or return regular merchandise. However, “returns with a receipt over 30 days, with a gift receipt or without a receipt will receive merchandise credit only,” per company policy. Just be sure to bring your government-issued ID, advised former T.J. Maxx employee Darcy Gerhart.
“If you have a return but you don’t have a receipt, you can return it for in-store credit—as long as you have the tag and a valid ID,” she said in a TikTok. “The reason you need a valid ID is that they keep up with how many returns you do without a receipt.”
As for clearance items, all purchases must be returned with both the ticket and receipt. If you don’t have one of the other, your return (and refund) won’t be accepted.
“Reason being, because it’s on clearance. We have no way of looking up the original price, no way of looking up the clearance price, no way of looking up to make sure it’s correct,” explained Solomon. “So if you’re returning a clearance item, it has to have a ticket and a receipt.”
4
Once clearance season ends, the store won’t mark down items any further.
According to Solomon, T.J. Maxx throws two big clearance events per year: One in July and August, and then another in February and March, right after the winter holidays.
These are also known as T.J. Maxx’s “Yellow Tag” sale. As Best Life previously explained, red stickers indicate an item has been discounted, and oftentimes, employees will tag an item with multiple red stickers before issuing a “yellow tag,” which signifies the product is on final sale—meaning it won’t be marked down again.
“So, the yellow tag sale is simply an event in which employees at the stores add yellow stickers to tons of items in an attempt to clear out holiday/winter and summer merchandise to make room for the next season. In many cases, items are marked down up to 75 percent off, but there are plenty of reports of shoppers finding things for 90 percent off,” we explained.
That said, T.J. Maxx is more strict about what they do and don’t mark down, especially when it comes to seasonal deadlines.
“Once clearance season ends, we can not mark down anymore—meaning, if you see an item here and it was never marked down during clearance season, that’s because it’s not due for a markdown,” explained Solomon. “So, we can’t mark it down [for you]. Once markdowns are closed, we can’t get back in [the system].”