Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 7 of 11

Brooke Roach: Barbara, it sounds like you continue to see opportunities to right-size the value that you offer the consumer to go after that market share that’s available to you and that you’re still looking to optimize that value. Can you talk a little bit more about the actions that your buying team can take to ensure that you’re offering that value? And can you contextualize that with the higher rate of markdowns that you also saw in the quarter? Thank you.

Barbara Rentler: Sure. Well, obviously, when there’s a lot of merchandise in the marketplace, the buyers are out looking for really great deals. So it starts with being in the market, having good relationships and really getting the deals at the prices that the customer wants and then offering that value to the customer. So I think that’s critical for what’s going on in the world today. It’s always been critical for us delivering branded bargains. And I think today it’s even more important than it’s been before. In terms of just right-sizing the value just as a concept of right-sizing the value, I think that’s really – from putting things out there and watching things turn, watching things you know, watching the customer vote and then making the adjustments based off of what she’s telling us, whether it’s in the assortment and the products that you want or whether it’s in the retail that we put it in. And Brook, what was the second question?

Brooke Roach: The second question was just how to think about the time line of getting that from the markdown perspective. It sounds like making those adjustments does require some markdown. And so does the markdown have to increase year-on-year as you move through 2023?

Barbara Rentler: We took – okay, I understood. So we took somewhat slightly higher markdowns in the fourth quarter. And we made sure that when we came out of the fourth quarter that we really came out of everything clean that we took everything. And if the value wasn’t right, we didn’t wait, we took markdowns, they were somewhat higher, they weren’t that much higher. They were somewhat higher. And so if you’re right-sizing your values going forward, you wouldn’t expect to be taking additional markdowns. The key is to drive receipts, which drives sales. So if we have the right values and return quick enough, we’ll drive our seats, which will drive sales, which will put us in a healthy position.

Brooke Roach: Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey with The Telsey Group. Please proceed with your question.

Dana Telsey: Good afternoon, everyone. As you think about the real estate portfolio in the stores, we obviously have heard about some of the space availabilities from the Bed Bath or a Party City. Is this an opportunity for you? And does it all change the cadence of store openings or the locations or regions for either 2023 or 2024 in your outlook? Thank you.

Michael Hartshorn: Hi, Dana. Certainly, Bed Bath & Beyond and Party City, like they have been historically, any time there’s retail bankruptcies that’s provided us opportunities for new store locations. I would say at this point, it hasn’t changed our outlook. We will review potential new site on a store-by-store basis. And if it’s appropriate for Ross and dd’s location, we can certainly add it to our portfolio. But as we think about 2023, as we said in the commentary, we think it’s about 100 new locations, about 75 Ross and 25 dd’s.

Page 7 of 11