Target is letting parents return entire wardrobes of outgrown or damaged kids’ clothing for cash or all new items

Kids can grow fast, and the cost of keeping them well-dressed can add up quickly.

Some parents have taken advantage of Target’s apparent version of the infinite-money glitch to save money.

“Attention all moms,” Jazmine Valdivia, a Target shopper and TikTok user, said in a video posted last summer on TikTok. “If you guys buy Cat & Jack for your kids, there is a one-year warranty that Cat & Jack offers if your kid outgrows the clothes, whether it’s stained, ripped, whatever it is, they’ll refund you.”

In the video — which has racked up nearly 1.2 million views, 85,000 likes, and 26,000 shares — Valdivia shows receipts from returning a large bag of clothing used by her three children for a total of $537.80.

TikTok

“Didn’t spend a single dollar for back-to-school clothes,” she added in an overlay.

Valdivia declined a request for an interview.

Other TikTok users have uploaded similar — albeit smaller — refund journeys in which they test out the company’s policy for themselves.

“Reason number 16293836286 why we love Target!” the user JMS_Steph captioned on a video showing return receipts worth $164.21.

Target

While some videos and comments suggest the company is cracking down on the practice, Target’s policy for Cat & Jack products remains the same as it is for its more than 45 private-label brands. Workers told Insider they still regularly processed returns on large batches of used children’s clothing.

The employees requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Some returns are unwashed or in ‘terrible condition’

Target’s return policy states: “If you’re not satisfied with any Target Owned Brand item, return it within one year with a receipt for an exchange or a refund.” A Target spokesperson declined to comment on the TikTok trend directly, but 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 the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, and emphasized the policy of “one full year with free returns should anything not meet our guests expectations.”

A worker in Illinois said the largest receipt she processed was about $300. “Absolutely used and in terrible condition.”

A lot of the clothing is returned without being washed, she added, and those products get tossed straight into the trash.

A worker in California said she had seen the trend increasing this year as parents returned for another year, and their friends decide to try it for the first time.

The largest receipt she processed was about $417 — higher than normal because it included a lot of shoes. The thing that bothered her wasn’t the monetary value, she said, it was the slow process of manually typing in item codes on the computer. Even working quickly, the return took nearly 20 minutes to complete.

Returns without proof of purchase are capped at $100 per year per customer, but items with a receipt or purchased with a Target Circle membership are basically unrestricted.

TikTok

Still, the California worker said many people were disappointed by the value of their returns, which tended to be smaller than they expected due to discounts on the prices they paid.

At a time when other retailers are taking steps to slow down the returns process, Target is seeking to make it easier to bring items back to its stores with this year’s rollout of drive-up returns.

Meanwhile, the total value of Cat & Jack returns is almost certainly a small percentage of the total revenue generated by the brand, which now pulls in more than $3 billion per year for Target.

Besides, what do many shoppers do right after returning a batch of Cat & Jack? Buy more Cat & Jack.

Source: Business Insider