{"id":500115,"date":"2026-02-26T05:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500115\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T05:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T05:24:15","slug":"americans-are-still-shopping-enthusiastically-theyre-just-getting-smarter-about-where","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/500115\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans are still shopping enthusiastically \u2014 they&#8217;re just getting smarter about where"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Storch Advisors CEO Gerald Storch joins &#8216;Varney &amp; Co.&#8217; to break down tariff uncertainty, Amazon\u2019s rise past Walmart and why retail panic may be overblown.<\/p>\n<p>Even as higher-end department stores struggle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/category\/retail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">off-price retail<\/a> is thriving, showing that Americans are still spending, just more selectively.<\/p>\n<p>TJX Companies \u2013 which owns TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods \u2013 blew past Wall Street expectations in its fourth quarter earnings report Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Sales surged 9% year-over-year to $17.7 billion in the fourth quarter, with comparable store sales up 5%. TJX also boosted its quarterly dividend 13% to 48 cents per share, and brought in a net income of $1.8 billion that quarter.<\/p>\n<p>More notably, the report revealed that the retail company plans to repurchase between $2.5 billion and $2.75 billion in stock this fiscal year, as TJX noted &#8220;continued strong cash flow.&#8221; It\u2019s a major signal management believes the &#8220;trade-down&#8221; trend isn\u2019t temporary.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/economy\/middle-income-americans-struggling-keep-up-living-costs-weigh-paychecks-survey-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MIDDLE-INCOME AMERICANS STRUGGLING TO KEEP UP AS LIVING COSTS WEIGH ON PAYCHECKS, SURVEY SAYS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Thanks to the collective efforts and sharp execution of our teams, we delivered above-plan results on both the top- and bottom-line. Annual sales surpassed $60 billion, marking a major milestone for our Company,&#8221; TJX President and CEO Ernie Herrman <a href=\"https:\/\/investor.tjx.com\/news-releases\/news-release-details\/tjx-companies-inc-reports-q4-and-full-year-fy26-results-q4-comp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said in a press release.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tj-maxx-shopper-clothes-store.jpg\" alt=\"Woman pushes cart at TJ Maxx store\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Guests shop at the TJ Maxx store in the Mall at Prince George&#8217;s in Hyattsville, Maryland. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had an excellent fourth quarter, with sales, profitability and earnings per share all well above our plan,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Throughout the year, we stayed focused on our off-price fundamentals to bring customers great values, brands and fashions as well as an exciting treasure-hunt shopping experience every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The off-price store success comes around the same time as traditional department stores struggle to boost sales. Not only did the parent of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/retail\/saks-close-stores-amid-bankruptcy-proceedings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">file for bankruptcy<\/a> in January, but Macy\u2019s and Nordstrom have both reported sluggish sales and pressure on discretionary spending as higher-income shoppers pull back and promotional activity intensifies.<\/p>\n<p>A report published earlier this week <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coherentmarketinsights.com\/market-insight\/off-price-retail-market-6007\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">by Coherent Market Insights<\/a> found that the global off-price retail market had an estimated value of $372.5 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $668.3 billion by 2032. On average, off-price stores offer name-brand items at 30% to 60% lower price points.<\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump hails strong economic momentum as inflation slows to 2.4%, beating forecasts.<\/p>\n<p>Shoppers may lean toward off-price stores, especially as inflation remains elevated. On Friday, the Commerce Department reported that the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/economy\/december-2025-pce-inflation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">rose 0.4% in December<\/a> on a monthly basis and was up 2.9% from a year ago. Those figures were both slightly hotter than the estimate of LSEG economists, who predicted 0.3% and 2.8%, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Reserve policymakers are focusing on the PCE headline figure as they try to bring inflation back to their long-run target of 2%, though they view core data as a better indicator of inflation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxbusiness.com\/apps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>FOX Business&#8217; Lauren Simonetti joins \u2018Mornings with Maria\u2019 to report on how artificial intelligence is transforming the retail shopping experience.<\/p>\n<p>Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, TJX expects comparable sales to increase 2% to 3% and diluted earnings per share in the range of $4.93 to $5.02.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we begin 2026, the first quarter is off to a strong start and availability of quality merchandise continues to be outstanding,&#8221; Herrman said. &#8220;Long term, we are excited about the opportunities we see to keep growing our business and capture additional market share around the world for many years to come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxbusiness.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Storch Advisors CEO Gerald Storch joins &#8216;Varney &amp; Co.&#8217; to break down tariff uncertainty, Amazon\u2019s rise past Walmart&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-500115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}