All T.J. Maxx shoppers know that searching for a great deal on the rack is a honed skill, comparable to the natural instinct of foraging for food millennia ago. So when a fellow Maxxinista exposed a hack that could revolutionize the way you shop, it’s no surprise it went viral.
In a video with over 97,000 views, TikToker Victoria Noel Robb (@missnoel228) shared a secret that lay within the price tags at T.J. Maxx.
“I’m fixing to tell you something that’s gonna absolutely blow your mind,” she says by way of introduction.
What’s the T.J. Maxx pricetag secret?
Robb says that at T.J. Maxx, each price tag has a number: 1 and 2.
“Do you want to know what each of those numbers stand for?” she asks. According to Robb, if the price tag has a number 1, it means that the item was made exclusively for T.J. Maxx. In other words, the quality is not the same as its original.
As for number 2, Robb alleges that it signifies that “there was a limited amount that has been made, and the quality of that item is going to be a lot better.”
“So the next time you’re in T.J. Maxx, pay attention to the right side of your tag,” she concludes. “You’ll learn a lot.”
Is she right? Well, maybe
Robb isn’t the first TikToker to go viral exposing this “secret.” In a June article by The U.S. Sun, another shared this shopping hack. While this user said the number 1 had the same significance as Robb said, they claimed that the number 2 is a “real item just being sold there at a discount.” But he went a step further. According to @amintips, there is also a number 7, which means that “the name brand item was discontinued.”
According to a Reddit post on the r/TJMaxx subreddit, there are other numbers, too. One user asked what the number 8 was for, but people were unable to help with what the specific number meant.
“Whether it’s overstock, buyout, misprint, imperfect, overrun, etc. couldn’t tell you what that number specifically means though, as we don’t typically do anything with it at store level,” one commented.
Another claimed that it meant the “cycle” the item came in on, though they did not divulge further. However, there doesn’t appear to be any official literature–or consensus–on what the numbers mean.
@missnoel228 The more you know??♂️ #fyp #tjmaxx #momtok #info #thankmelater ♬ original sound – Victoria Noel Robb
What do the different colored price tags at T.J. Maxx mean?
While the numbers may not have a clear meaning on a price tag, colors do. One woman broke down what each color of the T.J. Maxx tags means in a YouTube video. According to the YouTuber:
- White tag: standard price
- Purple tag: Premium designer brands from the store’s “Runway” rack
- Blue tags: Part of a coordinated set
- Red tag: marked down
- Yellow tag: ‘final’ clearance
So if you want to score the best deal, maybe numbers won’t matter much, but the red or yellow-colored sticker will. It doesn’t hurt to check the materials the item is made of, as well as to make your decision on whether a piece of clothing is worth it.
The Mary Sue reached out to Robb and T.J. Maxx via email.
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