I used to find incredible exercise clothes in TK Maxx. In the past I’ve found Varley, Alo, Lululemon, Sweaty Betty and Manuka.
I remember me telling my friends to go to TK Maxx to find something eluding them on the high st and them telling me it’s all a load of rubbish, I can never find anything, there’s just too much stuff to go through. I can’t be bothered. So I do understand you have to be a certain type of shopper, enjoy finding a real bargain, to do the necessary work. And in the last 2 years the quality of the stock has declined, designers and high end athleisure brands aren’t making so much stock, therefore less excess stock trickling down and after too many fruitless visits even I have stopped even browsing never mind shopping in TK Maxx.
Except I was in there for another reason the other day, with a friend looking for towels and bedding and I did have a browse downstairs at the clearance rails and was pretty surprised to find current stock, Vivere brand sold in John Lewis for £95 for £10 in TK Maxx.
Don’t get me wrong most of the stock was low end, synthetic mass produced clothing I wouldn’t want to buy but I did also see a pair of 100% leather Carel style red patent mary Jane shoes for £24.99 by a London brand called Off The Hook, the same shoes sold in ASOS, Next and Dorothy Perkins £43.99 and if you want to buy the original super stylish Carel Paris version you are looking at shelling out a staggering £420 rrp.
I read sports athleisure retailer JD Sports, somewhere I have purchased trainers, are closing 24 stores, as the retailer continues to struggle, consumers haven’t got the readies to spend on clothes they once had. So even the no 1 sportswear retailer is down, year on year from 2024 with profits for JD Sports down 6.4% in January 2026 from the previous year and CEO Regis Schultz is predicting muted growth for 2027. The decline in sales was blamed on a tough consumer backdrop coupled with cold wet weather resulting in fewer people actually going shopping. It could also be because Nike the no 1 brand for trainers pulled their shoes from stores opting for a direct to consumer approach which hurt their business too.
I think people just have less money to spend, and increased fuel and energy costs are causing inflation on the price of goods in stores. I paid £1.64 for a litre of fuel in London the last time I filled up my car so certainly can’t shop and go out like I used to.
We just don’t have the money to treat ourselves when petrol and heating is draining wallets.
It was encouraging to see a couple of much higher priced current items available in TK Maxx, particularly when shopping is becoming less and less pleasurable and affordable quality clothes are getting harder and harder to source if you don’t want to support fast fashion.
I also saw some very cute summer dresses from brand Nobody’s Child I’ve also seen in Selfridges. I think buyers at TK Maxx have realised just offering customers their own boutique brands exposed in recent TV documentaries has stopped bargain hunters looking for the designer bargains, the model TK Maxx established their business based on, has stopped footfall into stores and without more on offer shoppers wouldn’t return. What may be happening as smaller fashion companies continue to struggle in very challenging conditions for retail more stock is becoming available to TK Maxx buyers.
It might be worth a visit if you don’t have anything specific in mind you need and have time to have a really good look.
You do have to search and be prepared to look through a lot of stuff that wouldn’t always be out of place in a jumble sale or charity shop.