MY SISTER is proud of the fact that whenever she goes into T.K. Maxx the sales people nudge each other and say: “Here she comes . . . Mrs Two Trolleys.” So I asked her, “What? You mean, they think you’re off your trolley twice over?” and she replied: “No, it’s because I fill two trolleys with stuff. Thank you for your rudeness.”
And she does too, without shame and with all the dexterity it takes to manoeuvre two vehicles at once. No wonder men are scared of her.
T.K. Maxx is nothing short of a shopping phenomenon. I can’t criticise my sister because I go on a Sunday once a fortnight instead of going to church. The company was started almost 30 years ago in America as the T.J. Maxx group by a thrusting chap called Ben Cammarata. It did so well that it came to Britain in 1994, bringing mainly clothes at discount prices, but also a small selection of homewares that has done so well lately that the range has been expanded at its 175 stores in the UK and Ireland. The company now has 25 buyers who travel worldwide, buying its rice bowls in Shanghai, for example.
What is striking about the T.K. Maxx stores is the range of countries that supply the stuff. Pick up a nice chunky vase (£6.99), turn it upside down and it will say “Made in Bali”. The oriental bowls, chopsticks and placemats (£7.99) will be from Indonesia; the Ralph Lauren bed linen, original price £140, will be a snip at £40.
Visit any developer’s show home across Britain and you will swiftly realise that the pictures, bed linen, bathroom goodies and accessories are from T.K. Maxx. I know this because I pick all this stuff up and read the labels, making the sales staff nervous because they think I may be trying to steal something.
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Roger Bannister, of T.K. Maxx, says: “We had this reputation for clothes and shoes, but then we noticed that the British were obsessed with their homes and especially with interiors. There were lots of home magazines and TV programmes and this heightened awareness. People who were buying accessories, handbags and stuff wanted accessories for where they lived because they realised that their homes spoke about them just as strongly as their clothes did.”
Bed linen is a big thing in this store because the buyers, quite rightly, have a dislike of polycotton. Bannister says: “Polycotton is big in the UK but as a team we don’t like it. We buy bed linen with a minimum of 250 threads to the inch and sometimes as many as 600, and we use only those mills that deal with Egyptian cotton. It makes a huge difference because it’s proper luxury.”
So what’s in for this year? According to Helen Mills, the store’s furniture buyer: faux leather, faux fur and feathers and a Japanese influence for everything from fabrics to ceramics and glassware. Black will be big for autumn too, she says. Black? What, for interiors? “Yes indeed, but cleverly used, maybe one black vase, a couple of black pillows, some rice bowls or just one black wall in an all white room. If you use it well it looks fabulous.”
Ann Maurice, presenter of House Doctor on Five, is a big fan of the brand and recently kitted out three houses and four room sets for the BBC Good Homes Show using products entirely from the store to create glam, country and ethnic themes. She is predictably forthright: “Going to T.K. Maxx is not like going to Ikea or Matalan because the buyers there shop the world, finding things from lots of countries, which means you can create lots of different looks. You might have to persevere but the art is in visiting a few of the stores to find what you want and pulling it all together.”
Cushions and bed linen, she says, are particularly good buys, especially if you are aiming for a multi-textured look, but be prepared to have a good rummage or even wait a few weeks to get the pillow cases to match the duvet cover you like. Any other hints? “Oh yes,” she says, “treat yourself to a few pairs of shoes while you’re there.” Give that woman another trolley . . .
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www.tkmaxx.com