Public appeal?

The state is going back to the financial well this week, planning to raise another $662 million in a bond sale with a new marketing twist: It's aimed at you.

Treasurer Tim Cahill is ripping a page out of the California municipal bond playbook and working much harder to get individual investors interested in Massachusetts' latest debt offering. Those investors get first crack at the new general obligation bonds, two days ahead of big institutions like mutual funds and insurance companies.

But this isn't any sort of citizen outreach plan. It's all about getting the state the best possible pricing on another big slug of debt it will be paying interest on for many years to come. State officials say institutions will accept lower interest rates if they are convinced there is strong retail demand for the bonds.

"We think there are real economics to this," says Colin McNaught, Massachusetts' assistant treasurer for debt management. "When the guys at the mutual funds and banks see there is a deep base of buyers, they will bid more aggressively for the longer-term bonds because they will believe there is a liquid market."

There is another good reason to greet new investors. Some of the old municipal bond investors, particularly hedge funds, aren't interested anymore. Who will take their place, and how will that affect pricing?

"We think the market is much more difficult," says McNaught. "The nontraditional [hedge fund] investors have gone away, and we're trying to be smart about it."

Of course, individual investors were able to buy newly issued Massachusetts bonds in the past. But the new process is a real improvement for investors with a serious interest.

It starts with a website, www.buymassbonds.com, which provides information investors need to know and links to documents like credit rating agency reports and the state's formal offering statement.

The site also offers links to 19 brokers selling the bonds (investors can't buy securities directly from the state) and phone numbers for a handful more. The link to a page built by Fidelity Investments struck me as particularly helpful. One broker on the list, Ramirez & Co., delivers information on the Massachusetts offering in Spanish.

Treasury officials in California experimented with exactly this strategy a year ago (the Massachusetts website is a direct knockoff of www.buycaliforniabonds.com). They raised $690 million from individuals in a $2.5 billion offering in June 2007, or nearly 30 cents of every dollar. That was considered a big success; a $250,000 test marketing campaign helped.

Like most municipal bond issues, the latest Massachusetts offering actually includes debt maturing over many time periods. Individuals will be in the front of the line (state residents get top priority), but their access to different debt maturity dates comes with some restrictions. They can buy debt in denominations of $5,000 maturing in each year between 2009 and 2019 but only have access to long-term debt maturing in two other years stretching out over the 30-year range of the offering.

McNaught says state officials don't know how much interest they will attract from individual investors and have no particular target. He hopes the website can become a central location where individuals can buy into any Massachusetts state debt offering in the future.

All kinds of companies and their stocks take a beating in a bad economy. Off-price retailer TJX Cos. of Framingham isn't one of them.

Shares of TJX, best known as the operator of TJ Maxx and Marshalls stores, have climbed 26 percent on good financial reports this year. Sales and profits are moving higher. It even got a boost from unloading its unprofitable Bob's Stores business a couple of weeks ago.

But TJX doesn't seem to get as much visibility on Wall Street as some other retailers. So here's a question: Which companies on a list that includes Kohl's Inc., Macy's Inc., Sears Holdings Corp., and JC Penney Co. have greater stock market values than TJX?

The answer: none of them.

TJX shares commanded a total value of $15.2 billion at the end of last week. Kohl's came close, with a stock value of $15.1 billion, but the rest were left in the dust. Sear's shares were worth $11.6 billion, and Macy's held a stock market value of $8.8 billion. JC Penney was at the back of the pack, with stock worth $8.7 billion.

Of course, the real retail giants command even greater value from stock investors. Shares of Target Corp. are worth $40 billion, and the 800-pound gorilla of retailing, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is valued at $233 billion.

Steven Syre is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at syre@globe.com.