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TJ Maxx, where Amber Heard was spotted, is a secret gem in the wealthy Hamptons.
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Reality star and Hamptonite Jill Zarin said, “It’s literally like Saks Fifth Avenue in the Hamptons.”
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An East Hampton resident said of TJ Maxx’s location, “Everyone goes there.”
The biggest open secret in the Hamptons isn’t the opening of the latest cool new restaurant or the arrival of a celebrity. This is a chain of TJ Maxx discount stores located in an inconspicuous mall on the Montauk Highway.
While the whole world was staring at Amber Heard shopping at TJ Maxx Last week, the actor whose high-profile defamation case with ex-husband Johnny Depp was dropped after jury found both parties liable for defamation knows something they don’t: it’s a secret hotspot of the fabled East End.
Under the radar 33,000 square foot TJ Maxx outpost in the ultra-exclusive village of Bridgehampton, where average home sale worth $3.62 million and has almost become a clothing store for the budget-conscious elite and summer class.
Mona Sharafa personal shopper from New York, has a finite amount of time when she runs off to the Hamptons from Manhattan during the summer months, but she finds time for TJ Maxx.
“I try to shop there — it’s a big secret,” Sharaf said. “They sell these designer clothes next door. They sell products depending on who the clientele is. That’s why you’ll find nicer things in Bridgehampton than in Brooklyn.”
Sharaf, who says she has attracted her customers to the discount chain, said the $1,000 budget at TJ Maxx would stretch more than any retail boutique. “Instead of two pieces, you can get six,” she said.
And lest anyone catch her under the harsh fluorescent lights in the store, Sharaf said there was no embarrassment on her part. “I meet friends there – there’s no shame in getting a good deal,” she said.
When I phoned partner TJ Maxx at the Bridgehampton store, I asked about celebrities who shop at the store. “Probably yes, especially in the summer, but I really don’t know off the top of my head. I can’t tell you,” the unidentified official said.
But the Hampton experts swear Section “Runway” a store that features top tier designers like Dolce & Gabbana, Badgley Mishka, Balmain and many more. It’s also where Heard and her sister Whitney Henriquez were filmed shopping.
The Hamptons’ Best Open Secret is also a local celebrity favorite.
“It’s literally like Saks Fifth Avenue in the Hamptons,” says Hampton star and Real Housewives of New York alum Jill Zarin. Reality TV star with her daughter even row of candles under their Jill & Ally brand sold in the store. “My friends go there all the time,” said Zareen, who meets them to shop there or asks her boyfriend to wait in the car.
Zarin explained the mystery. “They only buy a few pieces of something from the store – they want it to be a scavenger hunt,” she said of TJ Maxx’s location. “You can find Tory Burch shoes that might still be in a store in town.”
Hampton insider and real estate broker Bianca D’Alessio, star of the Discovery+ reality show.Sale of the Hamptons“,” called the store “a secret gem” of all the boutiques throughout the East End. “I’m always on a mission there. You go on a mission,” she said.
“Everyone goes there, especially this one,” socialite and blogger Stacey Geisinger, who has a summer house in nearby East Hampton, told Insider about the store. “It’s a secret hotspot that no one talks about,” she added, noting that “fashion people” are eating up the Pucci range. Vinceand Valentino for sale. “They don’t want to share, so there’s something else for them,” Geisinger, blogger. Stacey knowssaid, noting the competition for limited editions, “Well, they can talk to me about it, a size 14 if they’re a size 2.”
Geisinger recalls a woman at a gala who told her about the store many years ago. “She came up to me and said, ‘The best TJ Maxx in the whole country is here in the Hamptons,'” Geisinger said.
There’s another faux pas that Geisinger warned about: leaving a check mark, which Geisinger says she once noticed on someone in the Hamptons. “If you can find something that fits and it’s a designer, what difference does it make if it’s from TJ Maxx? No one needs to know – until you remove this big tag, ”she said. “Everyone knows what their tag looks like.”
Geisinger loves her Pucci print dress, which she bought for less than $300. She slipped into a tight dress in a bright palette to Buy an afternoon lunch at the legendary Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida last winter with confidence. “I felt like a million dollars,” she told Insider, “but I only spent a few hundred.”
For philanthropist and influencer Jean Shafiroff, she can always find something in the Hamptons.
“They have just about everything you could want and more,” Shafiroff said, adding that she brought her composer friend Lucia Hwong Gordon with her to shop at the store. Shafiroff remembered how she bought a dress from the catwalk for her daughter. “It was the designer and part of the price, which was great,” she said. “Let’s face it: everyone loves a good deal.”
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