Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Jay Sole with UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Jay Sole: Great. Thank you so much. My question is just, with all the inventory out there, not just in terms of apparel and footwear, but many categories, are you seeing any opportunities to expand the business into new areas and new categories that maybe you have it before just because the buys are so good?

Barbara Rentler: Look, I would say that the merchants are out there, out there looking for all kinds of buys. And yes, that does happen. Often you wind up opening up some new resources, which we have, as the availability and the vendors are looking to partner with people. So, it’s both. I mean we are absolutely doing that, and that’s a piece of it.

Jay Sole: And Barbara, do you think that can continue?

Barbara Rentler: I think once you open up a resource, or even start shopping a resource, even if the resource doesn’t have merchandise that minute, usually, things over time, if you keep going back, you will open the resets up. I think after this supply double really, really died down, and we do expect it to go into next year because there is so much merchandise. Then I think there is a lot of €“ we don’t really have full line of sight to what will be full product set that’s in front of us since this November. Yes, I just €“ I think there is just €“ yes, I don’t know. I think there are opportunities and there are some businesses we could go into in some different categories, not whole businesses, but categories within businesses that we could expand upon.

Jay Sole: Got it. Thank you so much.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Ike Boruchow with Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question.

Jesse Sobelson: Hi everyone. This is Jesse Sobelson on for Ike. Thanks for taking my question. We were just wondering, as we look to pre-COVID margins, I think it was mentioned a little bit earlier in the Q&A, you were hovering around 13% pre-COVID, but you mentioned some higher structural costs such as wages. This pre-COVID margin is still attainable sometime over the next few years, or should we be thinking about a recovery, but maybe landing somewhere below those pre-COVID levels? How are you guys thinking about it?

Michael Hartshorn: Sure. Jesse, I wouldn’t predict where it’s going to land other than any return would happen over a number of years and wouldn’t happen overnight. We would expect it to have improved profitability over time is the way I would answer that question.

Jesse Sobelson: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Aneesha Sherman with Bernstein. Please proceed with your question.

Aneesha Sherman: Yes. Thank you. Barbara, on your point about resetting the value proposition, have you seen turns pick up sequentially through the quarter? And is that what drove in-store inventories to be so lean as you continue to lean in on markdowns? And then, Adam, you mentioned earlier on an expectation of an easing of markdowns in Q4. Should we interpret that you are now reaching a level of turns that continue to be strong through the quarter and now you are happy with where your value proposition is? Have you seen the turns stay strong kind of exiting the quarter and into Q4? Thank you.

Michael Hartshorn: Aneesha, on absolute inventory levels, these are the inventory levels we have been running throughout the year. We always prefer to be in the chase. And this is the way we will €“ we typically run the model and will continue to do so going forward. But the inventory levels, again, in-store, in front of the customer were up over last year, but down versus pre-pandemic level.