TJX - 5 Takeaways

Computerworld has a summary commemorating the one-year anniversary of the TJX breach. I agree with the article. The PCI Standard is a work in progress; Bad guys are hard to catch; etc.

I would like to add a bit to the discussion:

Despite being the biggest, costliest and perhaps most written-about breach ever, customer and investor confidence in TJX has remained largely unshaken. TJX's stock was worth about $30 per share when the breach was disclosed, and its closing price today was just over $29.

Overall, the most important thing is that TJX is for the most part a well run company with a solid product that people like and since they sell lower-end discount clothes, it is fairly recession-proof. While a $250 million charge hurts, they do $2.5 billion in sales. Moreover, some part of that $250 million is a charge for "Customer Appreciation Days" - also known as "Sales", which stores are known to have once in a while anyway.