<div>Just in...</div>
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<div><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/17077991.htm" target="_blank">http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/business/17077991.htm</a><br><br>By Mark Jewell
<br>Associated Press<br>April 14, 2007<br><br>BOSTON - Bargain shopping appears to be trumping fears about data theft<br>at TJX Cos., owner of nearly 2,500 discount stores that are enjoying<br>brisk sales despite a security breach that exposed at least
45.7 million<br>credit and debit cards to potential fraud.<br><br>TJX reported that sales at stores open at least a year rose 6 percent in<br>March, beating Wall Street's expectations. The performance extended a<br>recent run of sales gains since TJX three months ago announced a breach
<br>now known to be the nation's biggest data theft.<br><br>Customers leaving a T.J. Maxx store in Boston on Thursday said the<br>retailer's cut-rate prices on clothing and home goods are a big enough<br>draw to offset any worries about lax data security. They said they don't
<br>see TJX as any more susceptible to such theft than any other retailer.<br><br>``It's a sad thing, but it can happen anywhere,'' said Chamia Kissoon, a<br>30-year-old bank employee from Boston who left with a bag filled with
<br>clothing.<br><br>``Identity theft and data theft seem endemic, and I've got to presume<br>that since TJX is aware of this theft, that they've fixed their problem<br>here,'' said Peter Hartzel, a 60-year-old financial manager from Dedham,
<br>Mass.<br><br>An expert who helps corporate clients repair their reputations said he<br>was not surprised by TJX's strong sales amid bad publicity.<br><br>``Convenience and price are huge factors in bringing people to any
<br>store,'' said Peter Morrissey, an associate professor of communications<br>at Boston University who helped advise Johnson & Johnson after product<br>tampering in 1982 involving its medication Tylenol. ``It's just hard to
<br><span></span>change people's patterns.''<br><br>``And with something as mysterious as a data breach, it seems to be<br>remote, and beyond people's control, so customers cut you a fair amount<br>of slack,'' Morrissey said. ``It's almost like white noise.''
<br><br><br>News doesn't hurt sales<br><br>TJX's 6 percent increase in same-store sales in the five weeks through<br>April 7 beat expectations of industry analysts polled by the research<br>firm Thomson Financial. They had forecast an increase of
4.6 percent at<br>TJX, whose stores are T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods and A.J. Wright in<br>the United States, Winners and HomeSense in Canada and T.K. Maxx in<br>Britain.<br><br>TJX reported a 2 percent same-store gain in February and a 4 percent
<br>gain in January. Same-store sales are a key measure of retailer<br>performance because they measure growth at existing stores rather than<br>from new ones.<br><br>TJX's sales have risen even as the company has acknowledged the breach
<br>was worse than first thought. On Feb. 21, TJX said the breach of its<br>computer systems by an unknown hacker or hackers had started 10 months<br>earlier than initially believed, beginning in July 2005.<br><br>On March 28, TJX for the first time put a number on how many of its
<br>shoppers' cards had been compromised: at least 45.7 million. The Privacy<br>Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy group that tracks data thefts,<br>ranks the theft at TJX as the largest such U.S. breach.<br><br>
The company and the Secret Service are investigating, and the company<br>has said it remains unsure how many people were involved in the breach,<br>or whether anyone inside the company may have played a role. The only<br>
arrests have come in Florida, where 10 people who aren't believed to be<br>the TJX hackers are accused of using stolen TJX customer data to buy<br>Wal-Mart gift cards.<br><br>But the more than 50 experts TJX put on the case have reached no
<br>conclusions. Besides not knowing how many thieves were involved, TJX<br><span></span>isn't sure whether there was one continuing intrusion or separate<br>break-ins, according to a March 28 regulatory filing.<br><br>
<br>Estimating losses<br><br>The company says it's too early to estimate its losses beyond the $5<br>million it spent through January to cover expenses such as legal and<br>investigative costs, and letters sent to customers who may have been
<br>exposed to fraud.<br><br>Banks nationwide have reissued debit and credit cards to guard against<br>further fraud. TJX also faces lawsuits from consumers and financial<br>institutions, and potential fines from government investigations.
<br><br>TJX's stock has fallen only slightly through the ordeal.<br><br>``Wall Street is very focused on their operating performance, and on how<br>this credit card issue is something that will be corrected, and then it
<br>will be history,'' said Mark Montagna, an industry analyst with C.L.<br>King & Associates.<br><br>As for customers, Patrick McKeever, an analyst with Avondale Partners,<br>said surveys that he and others in his firm have conducted with TJX
<br>shoppers indicate that any consumer backlash will be negligible.<br><br>``There were certainly a few people who had heard about it on the news<br>and decided to curtail their shopping at TJX, but for the most part,<br>
people seemed not to be overly concerned about it,'' McKeever said.<br>``Consumers are well aware of the kind of value TJX offers because you<br>can go and see the same merchandise you would see in department stores,
<br>and it's 20 to 60 percent cheaper. It's very compelling at the end of<br>the day.''<br> </div>
<div>Rodney Wise</div>
<div><a href="http://pplrwise.blogspot.com">http://pplrwise.blogspot.com</a><br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 4/16/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">B.K. DeLong</b> <<a href="mailto:bkdelong@pobox.com">bkdelong@pobox.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">TJX is at 133 with 17,516.4M in revenue<br>in 2006 they were at 138 with only 16,057.9M in revenue.<br><br>
Interesting. I suppose we'll see the backlash next year.<br><br>Anyone notice any other interesting trends?<br><br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/full_list/" target="_blank">
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2007/full_list/</a><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>B.K. DeLong (K3GRN)<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:bkdelong@pobox.com" target="_blank">
bkdelong@pobox.com</a><br>+1.617.797.8471<br><br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.wkdelong.org/" target="_blank">http://www.wkdelong.org</a> Son.<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.ianetsec.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.ianetsec.com</a> Work.<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.bostonredcross.org/" target="_blank">http://www.bostonredcross.org</a> Volunteer.
<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.carolingia.eastkingdom.org/" target="_blank">http://www.carolingia.eastkingdom.org</a> Service.<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://bkdelong.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">
http://bkdelong.livejournal.com</a> Play.<br><br><br>PGP Fingerprint: <br>38D4 D4D4 5819 8667 DFD5 A62D AF61 15FF 297D 67FE<br><br>FOAF:<br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://foaf.brain-stream.org/" target="_blank">
http://foaf.brain-stream.org</a> <br>_______________________________________________<br>Dataloss Mailing List (<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dataloss@attrition.org">dataloss@attrition.org
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