TJX sells Bob's Stores -- in this market?

TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) has been one of the few bright spots in retail of late. As the parent company of TJMaxx and Marshall's. TJX has benefited from bargain-hungry consumers hell-bent on avoiding retail prices.

In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon, TJX announced that it was selling its Bob's Stores chain, which it acquired in December of 2003. In its most recent 10-K, TJX described Bob's as a "value-oriented, branded apparel chain based in the Northeastern United States that offers casual, family apparel. Bob's Stores' target customer demographic spans the moderate-to upper-middle income bracket." The chain consists of 34 stores.

The chain expects to record a charge of $15 million (3 cents per share) on the sale, and expects net cash proceeds of $23 million. The buyers are private equity firms Versa Capital Management and Crystal Capital.

Citigroup analyst Kimberly Greenberger told investors that "TJX's sale of Bob's will help (management) maintain focus on its core off-price business model as Bob's was the only non-off-price division in TJX's portfolio of brands and was not a strategic fit in our view."

Perhaps: but given the lack of investor appetite for retail chains in the current environment, and the state of the credit markets, TJX must have really wanted to get rid of Bob's: now! You just don't see a lot of retailers divesting bad acquisitions to focus on "core strengths" right now.

But given the tremendous performance TJX has shown of late, it's hard to argue with anything its management does.