Ross Dress for Less

Ross Dress for Less is the flagship off-price retail chain of Ross Stores, Inc., a large U.S. retailer that sells brand name and designer apparel, footwear, accessories, and home goods at consistently discounted prices compared with traditional department and specialty stores. The company serves a wide range of value-focused shoppers who are looking for everyday savings on recognizable brands.

As of February 2025, Ross operates roughly 2,500 stores across its Ross Dress for Less and dd’s DISCOUNTS banners in 43 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam. Most locations are in off-mall, open-air shopping centers that draw steady, repeat traffic from surrounding neighborhoods.

Ross traces its origins to a small junior department store that opened in Pacifica, California, in 1950. The modern Ross Dress for Less concept took shape in 1982, when a group of investors led by retailer Mervin Morris acquired a six-store chain and repositioned it as a scalable off-price format focused on a simple store environment and sharply discounted branded merchandise. The chain grew quickly across California and the western United States, then moved into the South and Midwest through the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, surpassing 400 stores by the mid‑1990s and 1,000 stores in the following decade. In 2004 the company launched dd’s DISCOUNTS, a sister concept designed to offer an even more aggressive value proposition to more price-sensitive shoppers.

Over the last five years, Ross has continued to build on that off-price foundation by steadily expanding its store base, refining its merchandising, and deepening its presence in high-growth regions. The company has focused on off-mall, open-air centers in the Sunbelt, the Southeast, and the Midwest, combining new-market entries with infill locations in states where it already operates. During this period Ross has also emphasized the use of second-generation space and backfilled big-box vacancies, allowing it to control buildout costs and move quickly when attractive sites become available.

Management has outlined a long-term potential for approximately 2,900 Ross Dress for Less stores and 700 dd’s DISCOUNTS locations in the United States, compared with a current base of roughly 2,150 Ross and more than 345 dd’s stores as of early 2025. This view supports a continued pipeline of new openings and relocations, with a sustained focus on community and power centers that already draw frequent shopping trips.

For landlords, brokers, and developers, Ross represents a large, publicly traded, investment-grade retailer with a long operating history and a national footprint. The chain typically functions as an anchor or junior anchor that helps drive traffic to open-air centers, and its preference for second-generation and value-oriented space makes it a practical solution for repositioning former big-box units. Ross’s disciplined, value-focused growth strategy, combined with its two complementary banners, positions the company as a dependable, repeat tenant across a broad range of suburban and urban trade areas.