How Much Should TJX Worry About its Recent US Sales Performance?

It’s well-known that TJX Companies has enjoyed great success over the past few years, often delivering strong quarterly report cards boasting earnings and comparable sales wins. And while that may still be true for many of the company’s markets, its performance stateside — under the Marmaxx division, which includes physical and ecomm business for TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Sierra — during the second quarter is raising a bit of a hubbub among analysts.

In an August 20 report, Retail Dive’s Daphne Howland outlined that while TJX observed Q2 net sales of over $15 billion alongside sales growth of 5.4% and comparable sales growth of 4%, the numbers were much less inspiring for Marmaxx.

“TJX Companies posted a rare miss on Wednesday, reporting that Q2 comp sales at its U.S. Marmaxx division rose just 1% year over year, well below its own and analyst expectations. Comps in the segment grew 6% last quarter and 3% a year ago,” Howland wrote.

“CEO Ernie Herrman blamed merchandising missteps, telling analysts on a Wednesday call that ‘it’s more about what we didn’t have in the mix,’” she added.

Marmaxx, TJX’s biggest segment combining TJ Maxx and Marshalls, posted second-quarter comparable sales growth of 1 per cent, down from 6 per cent in the previous quarter, after a self-inflicted store-mix slowdown.https://t.co/uQHYRg1e00

— Fibre2Fashion (@fibre2fashion) August 21, 2026

Some interesting highlights presented by the report:

• Certain stores and markets did quite well: HomeGoods (with the HomeSense banner included) saw net sales trend upward by 10% (to $2.5 billion), with strong comp sales improvement of 7%. The Canadian business observed a net sales increase of 6% (to $1.5 billion) and comps ticking up by 6%. Europe plus Australia saw net sales growth of 11% (to more than $2 billion) and a similar comp sales growth figure of 7%.
• This quarterly performance in terms of U.S. comp sales is the worst in a decade: Howland cited Wells Fargo Ike Boruchow on this stat, with the company being “slow to diagnose” the underlying problem at that time. This time around, “we’re aren’t out of the woods yet,” he added.
• Despite the negative, TJX brass still sees brighter skies ahead: On conference call, Herrman indicated that Marmaxx was already experiencing a rebound to kick off the third quarter, and further that “greater improvement by the holiday selling season” was in the cards.

Analysts, including RetailWire BrainTrust panelist and GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders, suggested that TJ Maxx’s value messaging may have been hampered during Q2, particularly given competition from Prime Day and other competing sales — and the performance of Ross may speak to this roaming shoppers’ eye as well.

“Ross should come closer to a 9% comp, and some of that has to be coming from TJX, right?” William Blair analyst Dylan Carden said, per Howland.

In fact, Ross beat even that prediction: Q2 total sales improved by a whopping 13% YoY, and for the first half of 2026, comp sales were up by the exact same figure (13%, or 10% on a quarterly basis). EPS was registered at $4.69 versus $3.03 in the year-prior period, speaking to Ross’ success.

And on the horizon — a continued balancing act between cost-averse and choosy customers and the pressure imposed by tariff costs. The question remains: How concerned shout TJX be about Marmaxx’s performance in the near future, and what can be done to address headwinds?