[3] TJ Maxx was founded in 1976 in Framingham, Massachusetts, by Bernard Cammarata and the Zayre chain of discount department stores.

[4] The concept proved so successful that Zayre sold its namesake chain to Ames, a rival discount department store, in September 1988.

At first only selling handbags, the range of items was later expanded to include clothing, shoes, jewelry, other accessories, and some home goods.

In a later article Schlossberg also reported on how TJ Maxx's soaring sales "should be concerning for ailing department stores that are fighting to get people to pay full price.

"[11] As off-price retailers became an increasing threat to traditional department stores,[12] signaling a change in consumer buying habits,[13] TJ Maxx's revenue grew to surpass that of Macy's.

[17] This exposed more than 100 million[18] customers to potential fraud, making it the largest security breach in history at the time.

[20] Details were stolen by hackers installing software via Wi-Fi[21] in June 2005 that allowed them to access personal information on customers.

In March 2010, computer hacker Albert Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after confessing to stealing credit and debit card details from a number of companies, including TJ Maxx.