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Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
People love shopping at TJ Maxx for the “treasure-hunt” experience it offers. Its sister store, HomeGoods, offers a similar kind of experience.
TJX Companies’ homeware business accounts for 30% of its sales overall. Its homeware offering in the United States is spread across three stores: HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, and most recently, Homesense.
The retailer is doubling down on this category, opening more homeware stores across the US.
We visited one of its HomeGoods stores outside Philadelphia and were extremely impressed by the shopping experience, especially the selection, price, and quality of the products on offer.
TJ Maxx’s parent company is doubling down on its homeware business to boost growth.
Off-price retail company TJX Companies runs two independent homeware stores: HomeGoods and Homesense.
HomeGoods has 690 stores in the United States, while Homesense is a brand-new concept with only four locations. Homesense is native to Canada and only hit US soil with a location in Framingham, Massachusetts, in 2017.
The company is now looking to grow both stores alongside each other. Homesense could eventually reach 400 locations in total, CEO Ernie Herrman told investors in a recent earnings call.
HomeGoods, TJX’s other homeware store, has been around much longer, since 1992. It stocks top home brands at prices that are generally 20-60% below department-store prices.
During a recent visit to a TJ Maxx store in Pennsylvania, I stumbled across an attached HomeGoods store. This was my first experience shopping at HomeGoods, and while it should be noted that this store was pretty much brand-new — it opened in November — and therefore more likely to be a shining example of the chain, I left with a good impression.
The only confusing part is knowing when to go to HomeGoods and when to go to Homesense — and how HomeGoods will differentiate itself without cannibalizing sales at its sister store.
Here’s what it was like to shop at HomeGoods:
This HomeGoods store was part of a larger TJ Maxx store on the outskirts of Philadelphia. The store was almost brand-new — it opened in November.
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
The home sector is a big part of TJX’s business, accounting for around 30% of sales, according to the company’s CFO, Scott Goldenberg. Its homeware offering in the US is spread across three stores: HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, and most recently, HomeSense, a Canadian homeware store that was rolled out in the US in 2017.
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
The biggest confusion here is knowing where to shop for what. While management claims that the overlap between these stores is minimal, the line between them seems to be blurred.
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
“Just as our customers enjoy shopping both TJ Maxx and Marshalls, we are confident that loyal customers and new shoppers alike will be excited about shopping both Homesense and HomeGoods,” HomeGoods President John Ricciuti said in a statement to the press at a Homesense store opening in 2017.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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SEE ALSO: We shopped at TJ Maxx and Ross to see which was a better discount store — and the winner was clear
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