stores converted to either t.j. maxx marshalls or homegoods other stores closed beginning late january to early february founded 1998 defunct 2011 headquarters framingham massachusetts products clothing footwear bedding furniture jewelry beauty products and housewares . parent tjx companies slogan the deal . for real . website www.aj wright.com this article s factual accuracy may be compromised due to out of date information . please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information . january 2012 ajwright formerly formatted as a.j. wright until 2009 was a chain of about 129 1 american retail outlet stores established in 1998 and owned by tjx companies . like its sister company t.j. maxx ajwright sold clothing domestics giftware footwear accessories and fragrances at prices between twenty and seventy percent below regular prices . 2 ajwright differed from other tjx chains by refreshing its merchandise on a regular basis . for most stores new shipments arrived every weekday . 2 in early 2011 tjx closed the chain s remaining stores and converted some stores to other tjx brands . although ajwright s primary target market was moderate income families its recent expansion drew additional consumer groups . 1 the company s community service strategy centered on monetary donations to the boys and girls club of america and other affiliates . 3 contents 1 history 2 slogans 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit ajwright s former logo used until 2009 ajwright opened its first six stores in the northeastern region of the united states in the fall of 1998 . 4 the first three stores located in the towns of brockton somerville and malden massachusetts were opened simultaneously on september 20 of that year . 5 during the initial openings johnson & wales university s marketing director mark neckes approved of ajwright ; he stated that ajwright strengthens tjx s coverage of urban markets an area where people need a place to shop and a place where retailers understand what people are looking for . 5 ajwright continued to open new stores as its customer base increased . by 2000 ajwright operated 25 stores across the united states ; by december 2001 the number had increased to 40 . 6 the chain opened an additional 112 stores by the end of 2005 bringing its total to 152 ; 1 however this number fluctuated due to store closures . in 2006 one business article stated that ajwright was in the red and that tjx needed to figure out the future of its newer divisions the less profitable ajwright and homegoods stores and the non off price bob s stores . 7 therefore the company chose to focus on lowering the rapid expansion of the chain . 7 one of the 34 stores undergoing closing procedures on november 30 2006 tjx announced the closure of 34 underproducing stores . 8 according to a tjx 10 q on december 1 2006 the closures were determined by several factors including market demographics and proximity to other ajwright stores cash return sales volume and productivity recent comparable store sales and profit trends and overall market performance . 9 employees were provided with severance packages or offers to transfer to other ajwright or tjx stores . 10 ben cammarata ceo of tjx companies stated 11 in our ongoing pursuit to drive profitable sales we have made a strategic decision that we believe makes ajwright a stronger business and puts it in a substantially better position for future growth . by closing 34 of the 162 ajwright stores we eliminate marginally profitable stores and accomplish several important things we substantially reduce the number of advertising markets in which we operate enabling us to better lever marketing dollars and efforts ; we gain efficiencies in store operations and logistics ; and we have greater ability to focus management attention and resources on the bulk of ajwright stores that are performing well so that we can build upon that base and grow successfully . the tentative closure date for the stores was january 27 2007 . 11 because of closing expenses tjx expected to include a reduction of 37 million in their fourth quarter 2006 net income statement . 8 on february 21 2007 tjx reported that the net income had fallen from 288.7 million the previous year to 205.5 million ; the reduction included the 37 million closing expenses . 12 13 the company expected to open about ten new stores by 2008 . 8 during this period the tjx database was hacked and customer information was compromised . 14 15 although tjx originally stated that the security breach occurred between may 2006 and january 2007 the company discovered that the database had also been compromised in 2005 . 12 13 in december 2010 tjx corporation announced a consolidation that would eliminate the a.j. wright chain . many a.j. wright stores were converted into t.j. maxx marshalls or homegoods stores while the remaining were permanently shuttered along with distribution centers . the entire process resulted in approximately 4400 layoffs . 16 slogans edit part of your family . part of your community . 2 more of what you like for less . 2 see also edit bj s wholesale club home club zayre references edit a b c about our company a.j. wright . tjx companies . archived from the original on 20 january 2007 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . a b c d a.j. wright about us . a.j. wright . archived from the original on 19 january 2007 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . a.j. wright community . a.j. wright . archived from the original on 19 january 2007 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . tjx annual report regulation s k item 405 10 k405 item 1 . business . edgar online . retrieved 2007 01 21 . a b duff mike 1998 10 05 . tjx opens first three a.j. wright locations discount store news . lebhar friedman inc. and gale group . retrieved 2007 01 21 . duff mike 2001 12 10 . resilient record bodes well for off price leader the super growth leaders tjx cos brief article statistical data included . findarticles . retrieved 2007 01 21 . a b taking tjx back to the max . worcester business journal . 2006 05 29 . retrieved 2007 01 21 . a b c tjx to close 34 a.j. wright stores . lebhar friedman inc. 2006 11 30 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . tjx investor information sec filings . tjx companies . 2006 12 01 . retrieved 2007 01 12 . dollar general won t cut rural ties . the post standard . 2006 12 07 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . a b the tjx companies inc. reports in line november 2006 sales ; repositions a.j. wright division for future growth . business wire . 2006 11 30 . retrieved 2007 01 20 . a b tjx s net income slips . cnn money.com . 2007 02 21 . archived from the original on 24 february 2007 . retrieved 2007 02 22 . a b tjx profit declines weighed by charge from closing stores . boston herald.com . 2007 02 21 . retrieved 2007 02 22 . banks replace check cards after hacking at t.j. maxx . wausau daily herald . 2007 01 18 . retrieved 2007 01 21 . pc world retailer reports massive data theft . pc world . 2007 01 18 . archived from the original on 20 january 2007 . retrieved 2007 01 21 . http www.npr.org templates story story.php storyid 131960508 external links edit ajwright official website tjx companies official website demographics breakdown for the company website v t e tjx companies current assets homegoods homesense marshalls t.j. maxx t.k. maxx trade secret sierra trading post winners former assets ajwright bj s wholesale club bob s stores homebase the maxx stylesense zayre key people carol meyrowitz retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ajwright & oldid 742017982 categories tjx companiesretail companies established in 1998defunct discount stores of the united statesretail companies disestablished in 2011defunct retail companies of the united statescompanies based in framingham massachusettsdefunct companies based in massachusettshidden categories articles with obsolete information from january 2012all wikipedia articles in need of updating navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 october 2016 at 04 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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