Why We Always Have Product Availability

The question of whether there is enough merchandise available in the vendor marketplace for TJX to buy opportunistically as the Company grows has been asked of us since we opened our first stores over 30 years ago. Today, with over 2,800 stores and growing, our answer remains the same – availability has never been an issue! Our vast vendor universe, which numbers over 14,000, and our nearly $22 billion global buying presence are major factors in our ability to source quality product for our stores. We operate 12 buying offices in nine countries and source product in more than 60 countries. Our top approximately 25 vendors comprise only about one quarter of the total product we buy, with thousands of vendors accounting for the remainder.* We continued to add new vendors and expand our global sourcing in 2010, further enhancing our flexibility. Once a vendor door is open, it typically stays open over time as we establish long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with our vendors. We are able to buy in so many different ways and believe that we are an attractive outlet for vendors. For instance, we are willing to purchase less-than-full assortments of items, styles, and sizes and quantities ranging from small to very large. In addition, we are able to disperse inventory across a wide geography, we pay promptly, and we generally do not ask for return, markdown or advertising allowances that are typical in the retail industry. We have over 700 people in our merchant organization and seek to hire the best talent in retail, and we run what we view as a best-in-class merchant training program. We have extreme flexibility with "no walls" between departments in our stores, so we can easily shift merchandise categories to take advantage of opportunities. Whether the vendor marketplace is running with leaner inventories or excess inventories, TJX has always had opportunity. Leaner inventories generally has meant that the retail environment is less promotional, which raises the pricing umbrella between TJX and traditional retailers. Excess inventories in the vendor marketplace typically has led to lower costs of goods for TJX. Either way, we win! Quantity, nor quality, of product has ever been an issue for us and we are confident that it will not be in the future.

* As of FY11