Shop 'n' Share: Last Minute Back-to-School Shopping at Marshalls

No matter how prepared I feel for back-to-school, I always find myself needing to do some last minute shopping.  I had realized that our 7.5 year old son pretty much outgrew all his khakis and cargo pants.  I also wanted to find some thermal underwear for him to wear during his soccer practices and games this fall.  Marshalls had sent me a gift card to shop at our local store to see what kind of bargains I could find, so off to Marshalls we went with the whole family.

One thing I've learned about shopping at an off-price retailer is that you never know what you'll find.  Did I find boys cargo pants and thermal underwear . . . no, but look what we did find to my son's delight . . .

For about $56 we bought the following for my son:

• 3 pairs of Nike fleece sweatpants for $9.99 each (regularly $32 each)
• 1 Nike long-sleeved t-shirt for $9.99 (regularly $25)
• 1 Nike short-sleeved t-shirt for $7.99 (regularly $16)
• 1 Reebok Official Licensed short-sleeved New England Patriots t-shirt for $7.99 (regularly $20)

I was extremely happy to have found fleece sweatpants because all the ones I had purchased for my son last Spring shrank drastically in length even though they were washed in cold water.  Hopefully we'll have better luck with these Nike sweatpants.  Our son is a huge fan of the Nike brand, can you tell?  I was also impressed with the large assortment of Patriots NFL t-shirts there were.  Our son chose one that has a New England Patriots silly bandz-like design on the front.  He is extremely excited about wearing it to school next week.

We didn't stop at the children's section though.  My husband bought these two polo shirts for approximately $20 for both.

• Men's Arrow Polo Shirt for $14.99 (regularly $48)
• Men's Original Weatherproof Garment Co. Polo Shirt for $5.00 (regularly $30)

Our children can never go into Marshalls without raiding the toy section.  I am always amazed at the prices of toys I've seen selling for a lot more at other retailers.  They each picked out a little something, which my husband and I put away for rewards to use in the future.

Of course, I had to stop by the enormous Marshalls shoe department.  It literally takes up about 25% of the floor.  I really was not going to buy anything for myself, but I saw these berber-lined boots from G by Guess.  The chains on them really set them apart from the millions of other pairs of furry boots out there and they make these boots a little edgy.

• G by Guess Horizan Boots for $24.99 (regularly $60)

I must say, even though I did not find what I went into Marshalls to buy originally that evening, every single member of our family left that store happy.  I gave up buying things just because they are "great deals" a long time ago.  All it got me was a pile of unused things cluttering up my home.  We ended up spending far more than the value of our gift card because we just could not resist the great prices on things we actually loved and needed.

Thank you to Marshalls & T.J.Maxx for sending my family a gift card to shop and report our experience back to our readers.

T.J.Maxx & Marshalls On the Concept of Off-Price Retail

As one of the few retailers who have experienced a steady increase in customer count during this tough economy, T.J.Maxx and Marshalls are two stores you may want to check out while shopping for holiday gifts this year. Both are "off-price retailers", not to be confused with outlet stores, which often carry past season merchandise and product that is not first quality. Conversely, both T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores carry over 95% first quality merchandise in fashions and home furnishings, most of which belong to the current season's lines.

In order to help dispel the myth that these two stores are only able to offer department store merchandise at 20% to 60% off retail because the merchandise is not top quality, The Marmaxx Group invited 23 bloggers to come to Boston to learn about what the buying team does to obtain such great prices on current first quality merchandise. Here are some of the highlights of what I learned during the Boston T.J.Maxx & Marshalls Event . . .

We heard from a handful of corporate representatives and buyers from The Marmaxx Group, including Laura McDowell, Manager of Media Relations (above) and Michael MacMillan, President of T.J.Maxx/Marshalls (below).

The following video only scratches the surface of what I learned during this event . . .

Here is a summary of how The Marmaxx Group is able to offer T.J.Maxx and Marshalls customers such low prices on the same merchandise department stores carry during the same season . . .

• The buyers are able to purchase large quantities of merchandise from one vendor because there are over 1700 stores combined between T.J.Maxx and Marshalls.
• The buyers purchase goods 40 out of 52 weeks each year, rather than seasonally. So they are still purchasing merchandise for holiday in November, rather than buying the same merchandise several months in advance. Owning their own distribution centers allows newly bought merchandise to be processed and shipped to the stores quickly.
• Since not all stores carry the same styles of merchandise and the identical merchandise is never placed in both T.J. Maxx and Marshalls stores, the buyers can buy large or small quantities, depending on which will get them the best deal. They are able to take advantage of one-time opportunistic buying without restrictions for the most part.
• If merchandise does not sell, it is not returned to the vendors like with many retailers. Ultimately, if merchandise does not sell after it goes on clearance at the end of the season, it will be donated to charity.
• Aside from merchandise getting marked down to clearance at the end of the season, there are no promotional sales, so customers can drop by a store at anytime without wondering if they are getting the best price for current merchandise.
• The store fixtures and marketing are purposely simple to keep costs down.

During the event, we were given a very effective presentation demonstrating how the same merchandise is being sold in T.J.Maxx and Marshalls stores as in fine departments stores at a significant savings. Many times the product is identical and sometimes the difference in price was due to the merchandise being a different color.

There was certainly quite a bit of information packed into one day. The topic of off-price retail was only half of it. The other half of the day covered current trends and gift ideas. If time permits, I will share what I have learned on those topics in a future article.

For all you handbag addicts out there, I just had to include this photo of the sample room devoted to bags in the buying department at home office . . .

Although I did not receive compensation for sharing this information with my readers, The Marmaxx Group did cover all expenses associated with the event I attended and I did receive a gift card to shop as part of the event activities. All thoughts expressed in this article are my own.

Photos From Day 1 of the T.J.Maxx & Marshalls Event in Boston

On November 3rd and 4th, I had the pleasure of joining 22 other bloggers from around the country for an event hosted by T.J.Maxx and Marshalls in Boston. Yes, I have lived close to Boston my whole life, but it was still a treat to get away for one night, especially when it included a stay at the historic Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel.

I was thrilled to finally meet in person several bloggers I had known online for years. Yes, I had attended BlogHer 2010, but that event was all business and networking for me with very little socializing.

Photos from Day 1 . . .

This was my room at the Copley Plaza Hotel. Although all the rooms were so different in layout and square footage, they were all exquisite.

Our transportation to the restaurant that evening was a trolley complete with a built-in fireplace. The interior was decorated to get us in the holiday mindset.

We spent the evening at Boston's Post 390 Restaurant chatting and enjoying hor d'oeurves and cocktails with team members from The Marmaxx Group (Marshalls and T.J.Maxx), Rocket XL, and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. We all had a chance to talk about the strangest gift we had ever received and then we drew names for a fun Secret Santa shopping activity, in which we were given a $50 gift card to shop for our person. The trick was that we only had the last 20 minutes of that evening to learn what we could about that person without revealing that we were his or her Secret Santa.

(From left to right) Carrie Kabat (TJX), Sonya Cosentini (TJX), Laura McDowell (TJX)

(From left to right) Tesa of 2 Wired 2 Tired and Emilie of Baby Loving Mama

(From left to right) Kasandria of Southern Bella's Ways to Save and Jennifer of Mom Spotted

It was a great first night! Look for additional articles coming soon on the topics of what I learned about off-price retail, current trends, and gift ideas.

Although The Marmaxx Group covered the expenses associated with this trip and provided me with a gift card for a shopping activity, I was not compensated for sharing this information with my readers. As always, all thoughts published are my own.