TJ Maxx Red Carpet Event in LA

When it comes to fashion and retail, I’m a pretty eager student. I was thrilled to be invited out to LA to be a part of the TJ Maxx Red Carpet event featuring Alison Deyette as a guest speaker (if you watch The View at all you’ll recognize her as a frequent guest contributor on segments relating to fashion and wise spending). She can also be found in several print publications, including this recent one in Woman’s World magazine this past June. The bloggers invited out were a great mix – many were from really amazing blogs about fashion and beauty and some represented blogs about saving money. I fell in the middle I suppose…after all I’m Feisty, Frugal & Fabulous!

Alison showed us some great comparisons between prices at boutiques and TJ Maxx. The items found at boutiques are the very same items found at TJ Maxx except that the TJ Maxx dress is way WAY less. One misconception is that TJ Maxx stores picks up last season’s leftovers – how else could they sell the same dress for less than the boutiques, right? Obviously if the same dress is at high end stores and boutiques at the same time its at TJ Maxx, that myth is put to rest. So how do they do it?

When retailers order from the designers, several bumps can happen along the way and that’s when TJ Maxx buyers scoop in to save the day (and save their customers some money). Over-orders at source, cancelled orders, extra fabric available….all these scenarios are ways in which TJ Maxx can win when purchasing from the designer at huge discounts. Buyers for TJ Maxx are working hard 40 weeks out of the year, and this means 10,000 pieces are brought into each TJ Maxx location every single week (!!!)

Alison explains more about TJ Maxx’s buying power here:

Alison gave us a tour of the store including the back room where all these pieces come in (kudos to the receivers at TJ Maxx, that’s a lot of work) and of course the sales floor.

After our tour, we were given $50 gift cards to spend at TJ Maxx before the store even opened to the public. It was very hard not to check out the children’s clothing but I promised myself I was buying something for me for a change (though I did see an Under Armour shirt for my son for $3!)

I decided to be the frugal mama I am and wondered what outfit I could put together for $50. My frugal find was actually even less than that. Check out my new outfit courtesy of TJ Maxx:

I also scored a Hurley hoodie for $19.99 and a pair of cute shoes for $16.99. I did check out a pretty little dress with Alison (how could you NOT want to buy a dress seeing how fabulous she looks in hers right?) but alas…the mommy in me won out and I went for comfort above couture once again.

We also got some great tips on Fall 09 fashion. Big items this fall are the Boyfriend Blazer (could totally pull this off, mommy or not), the Bomber Jacket (had intentions of finding one but got sidetracked at the shoes), slouchy boots (I’m a Canadian girl, boots are essential in the winter so why not be fashionable right), bold colors and of course BIG accessories like jewelry, scarves, and bags (the bigger the better for handbags, I say!)

Thank you TJ Maxx for a great shopping experience. Coming out to LA was a blast and meeting the other bloggers and PR team was so much fun. Finally, meeting and having some time to chat with Alison Deyette was the icing on the cake. Being an at home mommy, The View is on daily here and it will be great seeing Alison sharing more frugalista shopping tips this fall and winter!

P.S. For my Canadian readers, TJ Maxx had some familiarity to it and for good reason. They are a sister company of Winners here in Canada!