How TJ Maxx Makes Name-Brand Cookware So Affordable

Walking the aisles of T.J. Maxx can feel a bit like a scavenger hunt. There's so much to look at, to pick up, to smell (looking at you, excessive candle aisle). For a home chef, T.J. Maxx offers quite a selection of cooking-related goodies to browse, with everything from coffee syrups like Jordan's Skinny Syrups (which we ranked as one of the best coffee syrup brands) and Italian pastas to name-brand cookware and culinary equipment. When you pick up that fancy-looking stainless steel pan and spot the $19.99 price tag, no, it's not a mistake, it's meant to be that cheap.

T.J. Maxx and its parent company, TJX, make big-name brands affordable because of clever purchasing strategies and the ability to take advantage of the current supply and demand dilemma. The brand is notorious for buying excess inventory directly from big-name manufacturers at a discounted rate and selling it to customers for between 20%-60% lower than standard retail prices. With rising costs of living, there's also a rising trend of customers shopping less which is actually working in T.J. Maxx's favor. Other stores are shutting down, looking to liquidate inventory, and T.J. Maxx dives right in to grab name-brand products to sell in its stores at a discounted rate. That's why the All-Clad frying pan you picked up only cost $16.99.

It may sound impossible, but those name-brand cookware pieces you picked up in the overly-bright T.J. Maxx kitchen aisle are legit. We ranked the store as one of the best places to buy high-quality cookware for good reason. T.J. Maxx's huge team of around 1,200 buyers in charge of finding these sneaky liquidation deals know just how to spin the situation to the brand's (and the customer's) advantage. They purchase valuable items in bulk and scope out opportunities for deals on name-brand items, as well as deals on items manufactured specially for the store. When a retailer has an excessive amount of inventory but not enough sales to back it, the T.J. Maxx team knows that's the perfect moment to pounce.

Thanks to T.J. Maxx's deals on name-brand cookware, it's the ideal place to grab Williams Sonoma, Martha Stewart, All Clad, and even Le Creuset products (here's how Le Creuset got its name – which is French for "the crucible", in case you're curious). The stores receive multiple shipments of products per week, so if you're on the hunt for something specific, make sure to visit early and often. When you're done looking through stacks of affordable stainless steel pots and ceramic baking dishes, you can browse for high-quality kitchen equipment like immersion blenders and air fryers at similarly low prices, because cooking at home doesn't need to break the bank.