North Carolina woman goes hunting for ‘hidden items’ inside T.J. Maxx. She didn’t expect it to pay off so well: ‘Wow, this is a horrible thing to do’
T.J. Maxx customers sometimes shove items they want to come back for into nooks and cranies around the store, hoping another shopper won’t buy them. Viewers of a now-viral video accuse one woman of breaking girl code by seeking out the hidden items.
In a video with over 3.5 million views, TikToker Paige Constantino (@paigeconstantino) walks into a T.J. Maxx in North Carolina. She goes to the pillow aisle and shoves each one aside to see if anyone hid items between them.
Finally, she pulls out two Morphe blushes seemingly hidden by a customer who planned to come back for them.
“Actually, I always wanted one of these,” she says. Constantino decides to buy one of the blushes and tucks the other one away.
Next, she find a large, two-wick candle squished between two pillows. She smells it and puts it back in its hiding place. She also finds is a Korean face toner, which she puts back.
The last item she finds is a pink striped cardigan in her size. The TikToker decides to buy it for herself.
Constantino has previously gone viral for her TikToks in which she tries to uncover the items other shoppers try to hide for themselves at T.J. Maxx.
Why do people hide the items?
T.J. Maxx workers on the r/tjmaxx subreddit share interactions they’ve had with customers who try to hid items in the store to purchase later.
One says a woman asked workers if they “moved anything” around after she hid baby items. The worker writes, “The last few morning size it up’s we have been finding this baby brand hidden EVERYWHERE. today she came in went straight to Jrs (where we had it this morning) and was looking for everything.”
While some shoppers may not be able to make their purchase the same day, workers in the comments of the forum suggest there’s a better way to secure the items.
“Try asking her that you can put things on hold and it would surely be safer than just leaving it out on the sales floor,” one writes.
“Depending on your store, they’d let employees temporarily hold an item on the back counter behind the registers as long as they bought it before they went home. They couldn’t hold items for more than a day,” a second worker on another thread says.
Is the TikToker wrong for taking the hidden items at T.J. Maxx?
In the comments, some viewers bash the TikToker for searching for the items that other shoppers seemingly plan to purchase.
“This was mean as hell,” one remarks.
“This makes me sad for the people that hid it,” a second says.
A third adds, “I see we are not a girls girl.”
However, others come to her defense, noting that shoppers can’t reasonably expect the items to be there if they leave the store.
A viewer says, “Yall understand that it’s first to the register right? If you don’t have the money don’t go in there.”
“lol why are people so pressed? The products are available to BUY even if they’re hidden,” another questions.
The Mary Sue reached out to Constantino via email and TikTok direct message and to T.J. Maxx via email for further comment. We will update the story when they reply.
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