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Target offers one-year returns on its own-brand items, including Cat & Jack children’s clothing.
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Some parents use the policy to get cash back or new clothes when their children are out of clothes.
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While some retailers are introducing limits on returns, Target wants to make the process easier.
Children can grow quickly, and the cost of getting them well dressed can add up quickly.
Some parents have taken advantage of Target’s apparent version of the no-money-limit glitch to save money.
“Attention all moms,” Jazmine Valdivia, a Target shopper and TikTok user, said in a video posted on TikTok in 2022. “If you buy Cat & Jack for your kids, there’s a one-year warranty that Cat & Jack offers. if your baby outgrows the clothes, be it stained, ripped, whatever, they’ll refund you.”
In the video – which has received 1.2 million views, nearly 85,000 likes, and 26,000 shares – Valdivia shows off the proceeds from a large bag of clothes used by her three children for a total of $537.80.
“She didn’t spend a single dollar on clothes for the new school year,” she said in an overlay.
Valdivia declined a request for an interview.
Other TikTok users have uploaded similar – albeit smaller – refund trips where they test the company’s policy for themselves.
“Reason number 16293836286 why we love Target!” user JMS_Steph captioned a video showing return receipts totaling $164.21.
While some videos and comments suggest the company is cracking down on the practice, Target’s return policy for Cat & Jack products is the same as its more than 45 private label brands. Workers told Business Insider that they continue to process returns on large batches of used children’s clothing.
The employees requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
A very popular brand with an unusually generous policy
Target says its Cat & Jack label is the largest children’s clothing brand in the US.
“We sell well over 300 million Cat & Jack units a year, which comes out to about eight Cat & Jack items for every child in America under 12,” said Jill Sando, Target’s head of apparel merchandising , during the company. annual meeting in March.
Like all of Target’s private label offerings, the brand is backed by an unusually generous one-year return policy.
“If you are not satisfied with any Target Owned Brand item, return it within one year for receipt of an exchange or refund,” the policy states.
A Target spokesperson said the return policy reflects the company’s confidence in the value of its private label offerings.
Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington highlighted the brand on an earnings call last year, highlighting the “one full year of free returns if nothing meets our guests’ expectations” policy.
Some returns are unwashed or in ‘terrible condition’.
A worker in Illinois said the largest receipt she processed was about $300. “Totally used and in terrible condition.”
Many clothes are returned unwashed, she said, and those products are thrown straight into the trash.
A worker in California said she saw the trend pick up this year as parents returned for another year, and their friends decided to try it for the first time.
The largest receipt she processed was about $417 – higher than usual because it included a lot of shoes. She said it wasn’t the monetary value that bothered her; it was the slow process of manually typing item codes into the computer. Even working fast, it took almost 20 minutes to return.
Returns without proof of purchase are limited to $100 per year per customer, but there is no limit on items with a receipt or purchased with a Target Circle membership.
Some shoppers on social media say their locations have started to take a slightly stricter stance in response to the TikTok trend, including requiring more specific documentation of purchases. Others focus more on the “satisfaction” angle of the guarantee, with heavy usage indicating that a customer was satisfied with the product.
However, the California worker said many people were disappointed with the value of their returns, which tended to be less than expected due to various discounts at the time of purchase.
Either way, Cat & Jack’s total return value is almost certainly a small percentage of total revenue generated by the brand, which pulls in more than $3 billion a year for Target.
Besides, what do many shoppers do right after returning a batch of Cat & Jack? Shop more Cat & Jack.
If you’re a Target worker who wants to share your perspective, please do contact Dominick by email or call/text/Sign at 646.768.4750. Responses will be kept confidential, and Insider strongly recommends using a personal email and non-work related device when contacting.
Read the original article on Business Insider
