Ross Stores is making progress with its location expansion plan.
In line with its plan to add almost 100 new stores in 2022, the off-price retailer announced that it opened 28 Ross Dress for Less stores and 12 dd’s Discounts stores across 21 states throughout September and October. With these new openings, Ross has officially opened its 2,000th store as it expands its presence across the U.S. Ross currently operates 2,019 stores across the Ross and dd’s banners.
Gregg McGillis, group executive VP of property development said these openings occurred across California, Florida, Texas, Ohio and Illinois.
“Looking ahead, we remain confident in our expansion plans,” McGillis said in a statement.
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He added that Ross plans to grow its store fleet to include at least 2,900 Ross stores and at least 700 dd’s stores.
The new store total comes shortly after Ross announced a similar milestone in July, when the company said it had opened 29 new locations in June and July.
In August, Ross Stores reported earnings for the second quarter of $1.11 and a net income $385 million. Sales in Q2 were $4.6 billion compared to $4.8 billion the year before. Comparable store sales were down 7% on top of a 15% gain last year.
According to Ross Stores CEO Barbara Rentler the slower sales were a result of inflationary pressures and a promotional retail environment.
“We are facing a very difficult and uncertain macro-economic environment that we expect will continue to strain our customers’ discretionary spending,” Rentler said in a statement at the time. “Though 2022 will likely remain a challenging year for our company, we believe our value-focused business model and our strong financial position will enable us to manage through these economic pressures and rebound over time.”
Despite recent struggles for Ross, the off-price sector is poised to have a strong holiday season, according to experts, thanks to unusually high inventories across retail and a surge of deal-hungry consumers.
However, holiday sales across the board are still expected to increase at slower pace than in 2021, Deloitte forecasted, reflecting an overall slowdown in the economy this year.
