• Sierra is TJX's outdoor lifestyle brand, selling apparel, gear, home goods, and pet products.
• It's still relatively small, but TJX said the chain could grow to 325 locations.
• Business Insider visited a store for a closer look at T.J. Maxx's younger, sportier sibling.

Shopping for outdoor lifestyle stuff is normally a quick way to burn a lot of cash.

Whether at Dick's Sporting Goods or REI, well-made apparel and gear usually come at a premium price — even with the occasional coupon or sale.

My consumer experience with activewear (and inactivewear), shoes, and other accessories led me to believe the relationship between quality and price was somewhat fixed.

That was before I discovered Sierra.

I gave my local store in Madison, Wisconsin, a look for the first time a few years ago.

I've done plenty of shopping at Sierra's more widely known siblings, T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, and I never really felt the spark that keeps die-hard Maxxinistas coming back. Yes, the discounts at those stores seem large, but I'm not always able to tell if the price is actually a good value — especially if I don't recognize the brand.

Scanning the racks at Sierra was a different story, however. These were brands that I knew and trusted, like Smartwool, Carhartt, and more.

Each time I came back, I wondered why the Sierra brand wasn't more widely known relative to TJX's other brands and even other outdoor retailers.

It turns out, the reason is pretty simple. The brand was, and still is, fairly small and a more recent addition to the TJX portfolio.

Originally called Sierra Trading Post, the company started as a catalog company in 1986 in Reno, Nevada. It later moved to Wyoming and launched its e-commerce business in 1999.

TJX acquired it for $200 million in 2012. The first TJX-owned stores were located in Denver, followed by its first East Coast location in Burlington, Vermont.

In 2018, with a fleet of a few dozen stores, TJX relocated the company's headquarters to its main offices in Framingham, Massachusetts, and dropped the "Trading Post" from the name. The brand has since been on a growth spurt, on track to have 137 US locations by the end of this year.

In the longer term, TJX said it expects the brand to have 325 locations, more than triple the number of stores it had a year ago.

That gives Sierra the fastest growth rate of any brand in the TJX portfolio, though in fairness, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls have more than 2,500 US locations combined, so their growth is slower.

Sierra's tiny stature means it barely receives individual mention in TJX earnings calls beyond annual announcements of planned store openings, per equity research platform AlphaSense.

Out of the spotlight, Sierra has nevertheless been busy.

Foot traffic data from Placer.ai found that customer visits doubled between 2019 and 2022, driven in part by a pandemic-era rush to spend more time outside. While some of that increase is a result of simply having more stores, visits per store were also up, Placer.ai said.

In one of Sierra's rare mentions, TJX CEO Ernie Herrman characterized the store's assortment as "moderate to very high end " in 2022. My experience certainly supports his assessment.

Some recent treasure-hunt finds include the pair of Fjällräven pants I got, the pair of Lodge cast iron enamel dutch ovens in my kitchen, and an ever-expanding collection of insulated drinkware from Yeti, Stanley, and Hydro Flask.

High-quality items from known brands have also given me the confidence to try unfamiliar offerings from the store's assortment, and I am rarely disappointed. Hydrapeak's mugs may not have the current cultural cachet of Stanley's cups, but they do a solid job for a fraction of the price.

Sierra's selection can be somewhat limited compared to a traditional retailer's, but I almost always find something worthwhile. I now make a point of checking Sierra before or after trips to REI and Dick's.

Neither of those competitors is sleeping on Sierra, though.

In addition to its Public Lands stores, Dick's has recently experimented with clearance stores like the Warehouse Sale and Going Going Gone. And the online REI Outlet offers deep discounts on many of the items the co-op carries in its stores.

Still, Sierra has been in the game for a long time online, and its physical presence is expanding at a rate that could see it match REI's store count in just a few years.

Another difference is that, unlike other national or regional outdoor lifestyle chains, Sierra's parent company is a powerhouse of off-price retailing.

TJX's fingerprints are all over Sierra's stores, and the combination of its tried-and-tested playbook with this retail category makes the small but mighty brand an exciting one to follow.

• Declining foot traffic and rising e-commerce have led thousands of stores to permanently close.
• Former household names like Borders, Circuit City, and Blockbuster are now just retail history.
• BI rounded up dozens of once-beloved stores that no longer have a meaningful brick-and-mortar presence.

Brick-and-mortar retail is a tough business.

One day, your favorite brand can be riding high and enjoying strong sales from loyal customers, while the next it's fighting for survival and fending off creditors.

Emerging trends, changing shopping patterns, and new e-commerce players are increasingly reshuffling the game.

Here's a look back at some of the retail brands whose stores once greeted thousands of people each day, but are now consigned to retail's history books — or exist only online or as a tiny fraction of what they once were.

Blockbuster

Blockbuster started in 1985 and acquired the Sound Warehouse and Music Plus music chains to create Blockbuster Music in 1992. The music division was sold to Wherehouse Entertainment in 1998 before closing for good, but there remains one single Blockbuster video rental store in Bend, Oregon.

Thom McAn

Thom McAn was a chain of shoe stores that peaked in the 1960's and closed up shop by 1996. The brand's shoes continued to be available at Sears and Kmart.

Kinney Shoes

First opened in 1894, Kinney Shoes had 467 stores at its peak, all of which shuttered in 1998.

Warner Bros. Studio Store

Warner Bros. Studio Store competed with the Disney store until the company closed all of its locations in 2001.

Zany Brainy

Zany Brainy filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and closed all locations in 2003. The educational toy retailer's founder, David Schlessinger, co-founded the discount company Five Below.

Ames Department Store

Debt and poor sales forced Ames Department Store into bankruptcy twice, and in 2002, the remaining Ames stores closed.

Imaginarium

Imaginarium was an educational toy store in the 1980s. Stores started closing in the 1990s, and by 2003, parent company Toys R Us closed all remaining locations.

Hecht's Department Store

Hecht's was purchased by Macy's in 2005, and all locations were either turned into Macy's stores or closed.

Marshall Fields

Federated Department Stores bought Marshall Fields in 2005 and converted the stores to the company's more recognizable flagship brand, Macy's.

Gadzooks

Gadzooks was a teen clothing store that was around from 1983 to 2005. It filed for bankruptcy in its final year and was purchased by Forever 21, which then closed all of the stores.

Kaufmann's

In 2006, Macy's retired the Kaufmann's name, and the brand disappeared.

Tower Records

Tower Records couldn't keep up with the rise of digital music, and all stores in the US were closed in 2006.

Media Play

Media Play was a big box store that sold books, movies, software, toys, and video games. It closed in 2006.

Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel's 103 stand-alone stores closed in 2007.

KB Toys

KB Toys announced it would be going out of business in 2008, and by early 2009 all locations were closed.

Sharper Image

Sharper Image declared bankruptcy in 2008, but the company still sells merchandise through its website, catalog, and third-party retail partners.

Levitz Furniture

Levitz Furniture declared bankruptcy twice — first in 1997, and then in 2005. It closed all of its stores in 2008.

Linens 'n Things

Linens 'n Things had more than 500 stores in 2006, but by the end of 2008, they were all closed. The company still does business online.

Mervyn's

Mervyn's once had almost 200 locations in the western US. In 2008, the company declared bankruptcy and closed all of its stores.

Limited Too

Limited Too's success began dwindling in the early 2000s, and all stores were eventually rebranded as Justice by 2008.

Tweeter

Tweeter filed for bankruptcy in 2008, and all of its stores were closed by the end of the year.

Circuit City

Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and shuttered all stores the following Spring.

Steve & Barry's

Steve & Barry's filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and closed all of its stores in 2009.

Filene's and Filene's Basement

Filene's Basement's parent company went bankrupt in 2009, and by 2011 all of its stores were closed.

B. Dalton Books

B. Dalton was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 1987, which officially closed the bookstore in January 2010, except for a single location in Oviedo, Florida.

Waldenbooks

Waldenbooks merged with Borders in 1994, and all Waldenbooks stores closed when Borders Group liquidated in 2011.

Borders Books & Music

Borders Books & Music stores closed shortly after the company was forced to liquidate in 2011.

CompUSA

CompUSA started in 1984, but by 2007, Best Buy and other superstores had taken over, and the last CompUSA closed in 2012.

Sam Goody

Sam Goody music stores suffered from the rise of digital media, and most Sam Goody stores were either ultimately shuttered or converted into other brands like FYE by 2012.

A&P

A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010 and again in 2015, closing its stores that year.

 

Sports Authority

Competition drove Sports Authority into bankruptcy in 2016, when it closed all its stores and sold its website to Dick's Sporting Goods.

Sport Chalet

Sport Chalet, which first opened in 1959, abruptly closed all of its stores in 2016.

Wet Seal

Wet Seal, a teen clothing store, filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and closed for good in 2017.

Virgin Megastores

Virgin Megastores stopped operating in the US in 2017, but the brand continues online and in select international markets.

The Limited

The Limited abruptly shut down all of its stores in 2017, and the brand is now sold exclusively through Belk.

Teavana

Teavana's 379 locations were closed by its parent company, Starbucks, in 2018.

Bon-Ton Stores

The Bon-Ton stores included its namesake brand, as well as Bergner's, Boston Store, Elder-Beerman, and Younkers.

Henri Bendel

After 123 years of business, luxury retailer Henri Bendel closed all of its stores in 2019.

Dress Barn

Dress Barn shut down in 2019 after 50 years in business.

Papyrus

At its peak in 2009, Papyrus had 500 stores across the US and Canada, but the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy and closed its 254 stores in 2020.

Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy in 2020, leading to the closure of its 38 stores. An attempt at reviving the brand as a "digital collective" was unsuccessful.

Olympia Sports

After a slow decline and a tumultuous stint with private equity owners, Maine-based Olympia Sports shut down its remaining stores in 2022.

Bed Bath & Beyond

Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy and closed its 896 remaining stores in 2023, though the brand was sold and relaunched online.

In October 2024, Beyond and Kirkland's Home announced a $25 million deal to open 15,000-square-foot small-format "neighborhood" Bed Bath & Beyond locations across the US in 2025. The companies said the concept would include an assortment of classic BB&B products.

Tuesday Morning

The Dallas-based home goods company shut down all of its stores in 2023 after it had only planned to close half of its stores amid bankruptcy proceedings.

Christmas Tree Shops

The Massachusetts-based seasonal specialty retailer filed for bankruptcy in 2023, winding down the remaining 72 locations across 20 states.

Rue21

Teen apparel retailer rue21 — known for its presence in shopping malls — filed for bankruptcy for the third time in May 2024. The company's 540 locations also shut down.

The retailer had attempted multiple turnaround plans after a 2017 bankruptcy and 2023 bankruptcy filing.

Payless Shoesource

Payless ShoeSource was once the largest and most successful family-owned business in the country.

The company filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and 2019, and ended up closing all of its locations. The brand still lives on as a store on Amazon.com.

Conn's HomePlus

Conn's HomePlus, a home goods retailer known throughout the South, filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2024 before announcing that it was shuttering all of its stores.

The chain operated more than 170 stores in 15 states.

Joann Fabrics and Crafts

In February 2025, Joann said that it had reached a deal to sell its assets and wind down operations, including closing around 300 remaining stores.

"We deeply appreciate our dedicated Team Members, our customers and communities across the nation for their unwavering support for more than 80 years," the company said in a statement.

The fabric and crafts chain experienced two rounds of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in less than a year.

Party City

Party City went bankrupt and announced in December 2024 that it was closing down all locations.

Party City was impacted severely by the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns and social distancing ended many celebratory gatherings, and other mass retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target stepped up their party supply offerings.

A small number of Party City locations are still open for the time being, according to the store locator.

Moosejaw

Dick's Sporting Goods shut down outdoors retailer Moosejaw shortly after purchasing the brand from Walmart.

The company was originally founded in Michigan in 1992, and was later bought by Walmart in 2017 for $51 million.

Forever 21

Forever 21 was once an iconic fast-fashion mainstay of shopping malls, but it eventually succumbed to rising costs and new competition.

The brand was a popular choice for budget-minded shoppers and helped inspire the fast-fashion trend later followed by brands like Temu and Shein, which the company later cited as threats to its existence.

• Costco has been clamping down on shoppers using membership cards that don't belong to them.
• There are still ways to shop without a membership: online, with a gift card, or as a member's guest.
• The extra charges and hassle of workarounds can quickly add up to more than the annual fee, though.

Costco's Netflix-style crackdown on unauthorized membership sharing over the past two years raises a perennial question about how to access the jumbo packs of toilet paper, tubs of salted caramels, 40-pound bags of dog food, and other staples without signing up for a membership.

Access to the warehouse club and its bulk-price deals is primarily reserved for card-carrying shoppers with Gold Star, Executive, or Business memberships. These memberships start at $65 a year and include access for two shoppers who live in the same household (or work for the same business).

There are still ways to shop Costco's selection without paying the fee.

Here are three ways.

1. Shop online without a Costco membership

While some items on Costco.com are reserved for members, non-members can shop through the site's Instacart-powered Same-Day option or Costco's partnership with Uber Eats. The same-day services offer about 2,000 fresh, frozen, grocery, and household items for delivery.

The best prices on those platforms are reserved for members only, though. Uber says members will pay 15% to 20% less than non-members. On Instacart, non-members may be assessed a 5% surcharge on some orders.

Beyond the fees, pricing online is generally higher than at the warehouse. Costco is upfront about that.

Its pricing policy states: "Item prices are marked up higher than your local Costco warehouse. Instacart uses the markup to pay for their delivery service."

A 2022 analysis from Insider's Reviews team found that the best prices on Costco items are found in person. Business Insider also compared online and in-store pricing for a basket of commonly purchased items and found that this is still largely true.

For example, on June 18, a 30-roll pack of toilet paper cost $20.99 in the warehouse. On Instacart, the same pack costs $24.56 for members and $25.79 for non-members.

Other items in the basket included Costco's famous rotisserie chicken, salted caramels, eggs, dog food, bottled water, and coffee beans.

The pre-tax total for the seven in-warehouse items was $98.43, compared to $120.92 for non-members on Instacart. The difference of $22.49 was made up of $16.73 in higher pricing and a $5.76 5% surcharge. The comparison does not include a driver tip or rush fee.

The savings mean the $65 Gold Star membership fee would pay for itself after three trips to a warehouse, and six trips would cover the cost of a $130 Executive membership.

For non-members, when you add the higher listing prices and surcharges, Costco's savings compared to other retailers like Walmart or Amazon might not be as substantial.

2. Use a Costco gift card without a membership

Another popular workaround is to use a Costco gift card, known as a Shop Card, which allows shoppers to access the warehouse to use the funds.

The hitch with this approach is that Shop Cards are only available for members to purchase and have a minimum value of $25.

That $25 would quickly be used up in one visit, and it could be a useful hack for helping friends and family stock up on supplies. However, you might catch some pushback trying to buy $200 more stuff than your gift card is loaded for.

It's an easy way to let someone explore the club on their own without the commitment of membership. If they do decide to sign up, the Shop Card funds can be put toward the annual fee.

3. Visit the Costco warehouse as the guest of a member

Costco's policy allows members to bring two guests with them to the warehouse. Once again, there is a hitch: only the member is allowed to pay for purchases.

As with the Shop Card hack, this approach depends on a fair amount of trust between the member and the non-member, not to mention coordinating schedules to make a trip to the warehouse and sort everything out on Venmo afterward.

Bottom line: It probably makes sense to just pay the fee

Given the costs and complications of trying to avoid shelling out the $65 membership fee, it may make more financial sense to simply pay the charge, especially for shoppers who expect to make more than a couple of Costco trips a year.

As BI's Reviews team found, and BI again confirmed, the prices of bulk-size items can add up quickly. Shaving a few percent off in fees means the breakeven point comes after a few trips.

As the company puts it, "rest assured that the cost of membership can be recovered quickly thanks to massive price savings once you start shopping."

Either way, the real kicker is even simpler: if you don't think the membership is worth it, you can get a refund.

• Costco is bringing back a key perk for shoppers in its higher-priced membership tier.
• Starting June 30, executive members will be able to shop an hour earlier than Gold Star members.
• Slightly less than half of Costco members pay for the executive tier, but they represent 73% of sales.

A big perk is coming to Costco's higher-priced membership tier.

The warehouse club said it would begin allowing executive members in the US to shop an hour earlier than standard members starting June 30, according to an email to employees seen by Business Insider.

"Our Executive Members are our most loyal members, and we want to reward them for their commitment to Costco," the email said.

Costco did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Executive members were previously offered extended shopping hours at some locations, but the perk was phased out in recent years, Costco Insider reported.

The company also said in the email that executive members would start receiving a $10 monthly credit for Instacart orders and $150 worth of other benefits and savings on Costco services.

Costco's higher-priced membership comes with several benefits, including 2% rewards on purchases.

Slightly fewer than half of Costco members are executive-tier, which costs twice as much as the standard $65-a-year level, called Gold Star. Executive members account for more than 73% of the company's total sales, according to the company.

Improving the attractiveness of the executive upgrade could help Costco boost membership fee revenue and drive higher sales. It might also alleviate traffic that has been a challenge for some stores.

Costco has also been testing earlier hours at its gas stations for all members. The company said during its May earnings call that the impact on sales has been positive so far.

• Millions of US households will soon be able to try drone delivery as Walmart and Wing expand access.
• The service is coming to 100 more stores across several Southeast metro areas.
• Wing says thousands of customers use the service each week to purchase items they need fast.

Baby wipes and eggs.

Those are two of the top products Wing CEO Adam Woodworth says Walmart shoppers commonly order using his company's drone delivery service.

"The baby wipes one makes total sense to me," he told Business Insider. "It's a problem when you run out."

The reason for eggs' popularity was less obvious to him until he realized customers were most likely testing the technology's handling.

"If you can get eggs delivered and they show up and they're not cracked, you can get pretty much anything delivered," Woodworth said.

Millions more households will soon be able to try drone delivery, as Walmart and Wing announce their largest expansion yet.

The companies said Thursday that they are bringing the service to 100 more US stores across metro areas, including Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa. They're also expanding in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, where the tech has been live for the past year and a half.

Woodworth said drone delivery is proving popular in the areas where it is widely available. Thousands of customers are turning to the service each week to purchase everyday items like groceries or household supplies.

"You're cooking dinner and you realize that the recipe called for scallions and you forgot to get them at the store," he said. (Walmart CEO Doug McMillon previously said he used the service to order last-minute cooking wine for dinner without leaving the couch.)

Wing's drones have a payload of five pounds, which means they can carry about half of the 120,000 items typically found at a Walmart Supercenter. In other words, not a gallon of milk, which weighs eight pounds, but a quart to get you through the morning rush.

Wing said the average delivery time is under 19 minutes. Woodworth said the company wants to get that down to 15.

"Something where it would be way faster to get it delivered than to jump in your car and go drive to the store," he said.

(For the parents waiting on baby wipes, that's about two episodes of "Bluey.")

Americans have harbored their suspicions about delivery drones zipping around overhead (some have even shot at them, which is a felony). Woodworth said Wing does demos to get communities more comfortable with the idea.

"The immediate reaction is that negative one," he said. "But over time, the questions go from the negative to 'Okay, well, when is it going to come to my house?'"

• Walmart says tariffs remain "too high," even after recent reductions.
• The company said it would have to raise some prices if import costs didn't come down further.
• It's not yet clear how already-pressured shoppers would respond to price hikes.

President Donald Trump's shifting trade policy is causing headaches for America's largest retailer.

While Walmart CFO John David Rainey welcomed the recent reduction in tariffs, he said the company was not out of the woods yet.

"Let me emphasize, we still think that's too high," he said of the latest rates during Walmart's earnings call on Thursday.

Walmart says it imports about one-third of what it sells in the US from other countries, namely China, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam, and India, and that cargo is flowing.

"There are certain items, certain categories of merchandise, that we're dependent upon to import from other countries, and prices of those things are likely going to go up, and that's not good for consumers," Rainey said.

Rainey added that shoppers were showing signs of being more financially pressured, evidenced by their spending shifting away from general merchandise and more toward food and essentials.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon added that he didn't think shoppers would tolerate additional price hikes on their grocery bills, which would limit the retailer's ability to shift import costs to other goods in its assortment.

"The first thing that goes through my mind is food inflation," he said. "We've been through a number of years here where prices have gone up on food, and our customers have felt that, and they don't want any more food inflation."

He also said he was hopeful that any long-term policy would address foods that the US doesn't produce in significant amounts, like bananas.

An additional wrinkle for Walmart management is the question of what economists call "price elasticity," or the change in purchasing patterns in response to changes in cost.

American consumers proved resilient during recent years of high inflation and kept on spending even though prices were climbing.

But Rainey said tariffs make it "more challenging to anticipate demand by item," since it's not clear how shoppers would respond to new tariff-related price hikes and retailers are wary of getting stuck holding large amounts of expensive merchandise.

"We'll watch where our price gaps are," McMillon said, "but we'll also watch what customers are telling us and the response that we get from pressure that they're feeling."

While that puzzle is a little more solvable with high-turnover items like food, it's considerably more difficult to predict for seasonal sales events like back-to-school shopping or the holidays — and Walmart has to place those orders now.

And thanks to a quirk of retail accounting, a significant fluctuation in shelf prices could have an outsize impact on the company's financial results in the coming quarters if it has to make large adjustments to its inventory valuation.

"How do you make a quantity call, and what tariff number do you use?" McMillon said.

• A US labor judge has decided against Costco in a matter involving worker confidentiality agreements.
• The case involves a worker who had to agree not to discuss an internal sexual harassment investigation.
• The NLRB argued that Costco's policy "appears to instead protect the harasser."

Costco's policies surrounding internal investigations are under scrutiny for being "overly broad" and in violation of employees' rights.

On Monday, US National Labor Relations Board judge Andrew Gollin decided against Costco in a matter involving the confidentiality agreements that workers are expected to sign when raising issues with management.

The specific case was brought on behalf of Jessica Georg, who in 2022 used Costco's "Open Door" policy to file an internal complaint that she was sexually harassed by a co-worker, according to filings.

As part of the process, Georg was required to sign a confidentiality agreement that barred her from discussing the open matter with coworkers. She later received a letter from Costco that said the employee was fired, the case was closed, and that "we hope and expect" that the information would continue to remain confidential, according to filings.

The NLRB and Georg each declined to comment for this story, and neither Costco nor its attorney responded to Business Insider's request.

In a briefing, Costco's lawyer Paul Galligan argued that the confidentiality rules are intended to protect the integrity of the investigation and are in the shared interest of the company and workers.

"It helps employees to be candid in their statements knowing that their statements will be treated confidentiality. It is probably more critical in an industry like retail where employees work closely together," Galligan said.

He also said in the briefing the rules aren't intended to dissuade employees from discussing things like wages, working conditions, or forming a union.

But Costco's investigation found that the individual about whom Georg complained also had several prior complaints filed against him, and Georg later testified she felt she or her coworkers with similar experiences felt they might be risking their jobs if they shared information about alleged patterns of behavior by an individual employee about whom they had raised concerns.

A more tailored confidentiality agreement could still protect sensitive information while still assuring workers of their rights to protect themselves against harassment, the NLRB attorneys said in a brief.

The NLRB attorneys argued that Costco's policy "appears to instead protect the harasser who has had individual complaints dismissed over and over, because no one outside the investigator is privy to the serial nature of the harassment."

Costco's lawyer argued that the company's employee handbook explains that the confidentiality requirement is not intended to discourage workers from exercising their rights. The NLRB argued, and the judge agreed, that having workers sign a separate form (as was the case here) could reasonably cause confusion for a typical worker and lead them to fear for their job.

Part of Judge Gollin's proposed remedy is that Costco post a notice in the one warehouse where the violation occurred, since the NLRB did not prove conclusively that similar confidentiality forms were used at all of the company's US locations.

The case now heads to the NLRB's board, with exceptions to the decision due by June 2.

Got a tip? Email Dominick or call/text/Signal at 646.768.4750.