TJ Maxx should be considered the best retail store around, but I may be biased because I work there. I mean, where else can you find quinoa, new pillows, a kayak and a new pair of shoes, all in the same store?! It's full of name brand products, at the cheapest prices you can find. Once you start shopping there, it feels like a crime to pay full retail for anything ever again.
And as an employee, the addiction is a little bit more intense because of our employee discount and occasional 20 percent weekends. While the products and deals are great, there are certain things about working there you may not find at any other retail store.
1. Pressuring People Into Signing Up For A TJX Rewards Card.
When your store hasn't met their card goal for the day, you have to ask every customer at every transaction no matter how low their price if they would like to save 10% on their order and sign up for a TJX Rewards Credit Card. And when the answer is no customer after customer you start to consider signing up for one yourself just to avoid a 0 day and hearing the disappointment from management.
2. You Shop While You Work.
When you work the sales floor the temptation is too real. You're grabbing things left and right to put on hold for yourself to buy at the end of your shift. You convince yourself you can afford it because it's already so much cheaper than the original price, plus you get 10% off. You rarely leave a shift without buying something.
3. "Can You Check The Back?"
Some customers have this idea that our backroom is full of piles and piles of all of the items in the store they can imagine, and we are purposely hiding them. When you're helping a customer look for an item in the store and you can't find it, there's always the one who asks "can you check the back?" and when you explain to them that what is out on the floor is all we have, they insist you check anyway. So you walk to the backroom, stand there for a few minutes staring at the piles of hangers and extra queue line shelves, and turn around to let them know again, what is on the floor is all you have.
4. Feeling Like You're Talking To Yourself.
When you're not around any co-workers and you start talking into your walkie, customers stare at you like you're crazy. Or even better, when someone says something funny in the walkie and you start laughing in front of a customer and they think you're a psychopath.
5. Being A Spy In Fitting Room.
When the fitting room gets slow, you have no other option but to people watch and keep an eye on everyone in the store. You're usually the first one to point out someone who needs enhanced customer service, and watch the whole process unfold.
6. All Customers Say The Same Thing.
When you're on register ringing out a customer and you ask "did you find everything okay today?" 9 times out of 10 their response will be, "oh yes, I ended up with more than I came in for!" And you agree that it's hard to come into TJ Maxx and just buy one thing.
7. "Assistance Needed In Handbags."
This button is great for when a customer really wants to see a bag that's been locked. But there is always that one child in the store who repeatedly hits the button, and you hear the recorded voice over and over again until someone contains their child.
8. You Feel Like You're Part Of A Family.
When you're talking in each others ears all day, literally, working on projects together, or just venting about anything and everything in the break room with your co-workers, you feel closer to them. Your TJ Maxx family makes work much more enjoyable.
