Ross Dress For Less coming to Long Island as off-price retailer pushes into new areas

Ross Dress for Less is planning to make its Long Island debut, as the off-price retailer continues its push into new markets.

Ross, which opened its first New York State stores last year, plans to open a location in the village of Hempstead.

The store is planned for Hempstead Village Commons, at 320 Peninsula Blvd., said Joseph Simone Jr., superintendent of the village’s building department.

The shopping center’s owner, Woodmere-based real estate developer Basser-Kaufman, submitted to the village in June building plans for exterior and interior alterations to convert a former Pep Boys store to a Ross, he said.

Following approval by the village’s planning board and building department, a building permit was issued July 23 to renovate a 20,000-square-foot space for a Ross store, Simone said.

Basser-Kaufman declined to comment.

Dublin, California-based Ross Stores Inc. declined to provide details on its plans for a Hempstead store, so it is unclear when the store will open. The company also declined to comment on whether it is pursuing any other Long Island locations.

"We have not announced any new stores in Long Island," a spokeswoman said in an email.

The average new Ross store employs about 40 full- and part-time workers, she said.

Inflation boosting off-price segment

Ross is the largest off-price clothing and home goods retailer in the United States, with 1,795 stores in 43 states; Washington, D.C.; and Guam. The retailer’s sister chain, DD’s Discounts, has 353 stores in 22 states.

Ross Stores’ goal is to eventually expand Ross to about 2,900 locations and DD’s to approximately 700 stores, according to the company’s 2023 annual report.

The company is adding about 90 new stores — 75 Ross and 15 DD’s locations — across multiple states during fiscal 2024.

The first Ross stores in Michigan and Minnesota opened last year, while the chain expanded its presence in core markets, including California, Florida and Texas.

There are now six Ross stores in New York, all of which are upstate, and the retailer plans to open a store in Vestal, in Broome County, in the fall.

Ross stores are about 27,000 square feet in size on average, according to the company.

Opening about 90 stores annually for the last 10 years, Ross Stores’ growth plan bodes well for the company, given inflation’s impact on price-conscious consumers in recent years, said Noah Rohr, consumer equity research analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.

Ross Stores performs well financially, with sales at stores open at least one year increasing by 5% in fiscal 2023 and 3% in the first quarter of this fiscal year, Rohr said.

Most of the company’s sales growth is being driven by actual increases in the volume of merchandise sold, not just price increases, he said.

“I think the company is positioned pretty well for a tighter economic environment,” he said.

Off-price retailers in general, including Burlington, TJ Maxx and Marshalls, are gaining market share, in part, because over the last 20 years, they’ve removed the stigma that off-price stores offer bottom-of-the-barrel merchandise, said Simeon Siegel, managing director of equity research in the Manhattan office of BMO Capital Markets, a Toronto-based financial services provider.

“That and the fact that [full-price] department stores are under pressure mean that off-price becomes a destination instead of a … collection of mistakes,” he said.

Ross’ target customers are mostly from middle-income households, while DD’s target customers generally have more moderate incomes than those of typical Ross customers, according to a Ross Stores investors report.

Ross Stores’ net income in the fiscal first quarter, which ended May 4, was $488 million, up from $371 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company’s total sales grew 8% to $4.9 billion.

The company’s overall sales were respectable in the first quarter but there are concerns about inflation putting pressure on low-to-moderate income customers’ discretionary spending, Barbara Rentler, Ross Stores’ chief executive officer, told analysts during an earnings call in May.

“As a result, it’s more important than ever that we remain focused on delivering the best branded values that we can possibly offer. In addition, we'll continue to manage inventory expenses tightly in order to maximize sales and earnings growth over the balance of the year,” she said.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.