Item 1. BUSINESS

Ross Stores, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“we” or the “Company”) operate two brands of off-price retail apparel and home fashion stores—Ross Dress for Less® (“Ross”) and dd’s DISCOUNTS®.

Ross is the largest off-price apparel and home fashion chain in the United States, with 1,693 locations in 40 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam, as of January 28, 2023. Ross offers first-quality, in-season, name brand and designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions for the entire family at savings of 20% to 60% off department and specialty store regular prices every day. Ross’ target customers are primarily from middle income households.

We also operate 322 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores in 21 states as of January 28, 2023. dd’s DISCOUNTS features more moderately-priced first-quality, in-season, name brand apparel, accessories, footwear, and home fashions for the entire family at savings of 20% to 70% off moderate department and discount store regular prices every day. The typical dd’s DISCOUNTS store is located in an established shopping center in a densely populated urban or suburban neighborhood, and its target customers typically come from households with more moderate incomes than Ross customers.

The merchant, store field, and distribution operations for Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS are separate. The two chains share certain corporate and support services.

Both our Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS brands target value-conscious customers. The decisions we make, from merchandising, purchasing, and pricing, to the locations of our stores, are based on these customer profiles. We believe that both brands derive a competitive advantage by offering a wide assortment of product within each of our merchandise categories, in organized and easy-to-shop store environments.

Our mission is to offer competitive values to our target customers by focusing on the following key strategic objectives:

• Maintain an appropriate level of recognizable brands, labels, and fashions at strong discounts throughout the store.

• Meet customer needs on a local basis.

• Deliver an in-store shopping experience that reflects the expectations of the off-price customer.

• Manage real estate growth to compete effectively across all our markets.

We refer to our fiscal years ended January 28, 2023, January 29, 2022, and January 30, 2021 as fiscal 2022, fiscal 2021, and fiscal 2020, respectively, each of which were 52-week years.

Merchandising, Purchasing, and Pricing

We seek to provide our customers with a wide assortment of first-quality, in-season, brand name and designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home merchandise for the entire family at savings of 20% to 60% below department and specialty store regular prices every day at Ross, and 20% to 70% below moderate department and discount store regular prices at dd’s DISCOUNTS. We sell recognizable brand name merchandise that is on trend and fashionable in each category. New merchandise typically is received from three to six times per week at both Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS stores. Our buyers review their merchandise assortments on a weekly basis, enabling them to respond to selling trends and purchasing opportunities in the market. Our merchandising strategy is reflected in our advertising, which emphasizes a strong value message. Our stores offer a treasure-hunt shopping experience where customers can find great savings every day on a broad assortment of brand name bargains for the family and the home.

Merchandising. Our merchandising strategy incorporates a combination of off-price buying techniques to purchase advance-of-season, in-season, and past-season merchandise for both Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS. We believe merchandise with nationally recognized name brands sold at compelling discounts will continue to be an important determinant of our success. We generally leave the brand name label on the merchandise we sell.

We have established merchandise assortments that we believe are attractive to our target customers. Although we may offer fewer classifications of merchandise than most department stores, we generally offer a large selection within each classification, with a wide assortment of vendors, labels, prices, colors, styles, and fabrics within each size or item. Our merchandise offerings include, but are not limited to, apparel, footwear, accessories, small furniture, home accents, bed and bath, beauty, toys, luggage, gourmet food, cookware, jewelry and watches, and pet accessories.

Purchasing. We have a large network of merchandise vendors and manufacturers for both Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS and believe we have adequate sources of first-quality merchandise to meet our requirements. We purchase the vast majority of our merchandise directly from manufacturers.

We believe our ability to effectively execute certain off-price buying strategies is a key factor in our success. Our buyers use a number of methods that enable us to offer our customers brand name and designer merchandise at strong discounts every day relative to department and specialty stores for Ross, and moderate department and discount stores for dd’s DISCOUNTS. By purchasing later in the merchandise buying cycle than department, specialty, and discount stores, we are able to take advantage of imbalances between retailers’ demand for products and manufacturers’ supply of those products.

Unlike most department and specialty stores, we typically do not require that vendors or manufacturers provide promotional allowances, co-op advertising allowances, return privileges, drop shipments to stores, or delayed deliveries of merchandise. For most orders, delivery is made to one of our distribution centers. These flexible requirements further enable our buyers to obtain significant discounts on purchases.

The merchandise that we offer in all of our stores is acquired through opportunistic purchases created by manufacturer and brand overruns and canceled orders both during and at the end of a season (“close-out” purchases), and production direct from brands and factories (“upfront” purchases). We also source merchandise under in-house brands or vendor brands. Upon receipt, merchandise can be shipped to stores in-season or can be stored in our warehouses as packaway merchandise.

Packaway merchandise is purchased with the intent that it will be stored in our warehouses until a later date, which may even be the beginning of the same selling season in the following year. Packaway purchases are an effective method of increasing the percentage of prestige and national brands at competitive savings within our merchandise assortments. The timing of the release of packaway inventory to our stores is principally driven by the product mix and seasonality of the merchandise, and its relation to our store merchandise assortment plans. As such, the aging of packaway varies by merchandise category and seasonality of purchase, but typically packaway remains in storage less than six months.

In fiscal 2022, we continued our emphasis on this important sourcing strategy in response to compelling opportunities available in the marketplace. Packaway accounted for approximately 40% of total inventories as of January 28, 2023 and January 29, 2022.

Our primary buying offices are located in New York City and Los Angeles, the nation’s two largest apparel markets. We also operate a smaller buying office located in Boston. These strategic locations allow our buyers to be in the market frequently, sourcing opportunities and negotiating purchases with vendors and manufacturers. These locations also enable our buyers to strengthen vendor relationships—a key element to the success of our off-price buying strategies.

At the end of fiscal 2022, we had over 900 merchants for Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS combined. The Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS buying organizations are separate and distinct, and each includes merchandise management, buyers, and assistant buyers. Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS buyers have on average seven years of experience, including merchandising positions with other retailers. We expect to continue to make additional targeted investments in our merchant organization to further develop our relationships with our manufacturers and vendors. Our ongoing objective is to strengthen our ability to procure the most desirable brands and fashions at competitive discounts.

The off-price buying strategies utilized by our experienced team of merchants enable us to purchase Ross merchandise at net prices that are lower than prices paid by department and specialty stores, and to purchase dd’s DISCOUNTS merchandise at net prices that are lower than prices paid by moderate department and discount stores.

Pricing. We sell brand name merchandise at Ross that is priced 20% to 60% below most department and specialty store regular prices. At dd’s DISCOUNTS, we sell more moderate brand name merchandise that is priced 20% to 70% below most moderate department and discount store regular prices. Our pricing is reflected on most of our price tags which display our selling price as well as the comparable value for that item in department and specialty stores for Ross merchandise, or in more moderate department and discount stores for dd’s DISCOUNTS merchandise.

Our pricing strategy at Ross differs from that of a department or specialty store. We purchase our merchandise at lower prices and mark it up less than a department or specialty store. This strategy enables us to offer customers consistently low prices and compelling value. Our buyers review specified departments in our stores for possible markdowns based on the rate of sale on a weekly basis, as well as at the end of fashion seasons, to promote faster turnover of merchandise inventory and to accelerate the flow of fresh product. A similar pricing strategy is in place at dd’s DISCOUNTS where prices are compared to those in moderate department and discount stores.

Stores

As of January 28, 2023, we operated a total of 2,015 stores comprised of 1,693 Ross stores and 322 dd’s DISCOUNTS stores. Our stores are located predominantly in community and neighborhood shopping centers in heavily populated urban and suburban areas. Where the size of the market and real estate opportunities permit, our real estate strategy is to cluster Ross stores with the objective to increase our market penetration and to benefit from economies of scale in advertising, distribution, field management, and other overhead. When evaluating a new store location, we consider factors such as the availability and quality of potential sites, demographic characteristics, competition, and population density of the local trade area. In addition, we continue to consider opportunistic real estate acquisitions. Where possible, we obtain sites in buildings requiring minimal alterations, allowing us to establish stores in new locations in a relatively short period of time and at reasonable costs in a given market. We do the same for dd’s DISCOUNTS stores.

We believe a key element of our success at both Ross and dd’s DISCOUNTS is our organized and easy-to-shop in-store environment which allows customers to shop at their own pace. While our stores promote a self-service, treasure-hunt shopping experience, the layouts are designed to enhance customer convenience in their merchandise presentation, dressing rooms, checkout, and merchandise return areas. Our store’s sales area is based on a prototype single floor design with a racetrack aisle layout. A customer can locate desired departments by signs displayed just below the ceiling of each department. We enable our customers to select among sizes and styles through prominent category and sizing markers. Our stores have shopping carts and/or baskets available at the entrance for customer convenience. Cash registers are primarily located at store exits for customer ease and efficient staffing.

We accept a variety of payment methods. We provide refunds or store credit on all merchandise (not used, worn, or altered) returned with a receipt within 30 days. Merchandise returns having a receipt older than 30 days are exchanged or refunded with store credit.

Operating Costs

Consistent with the other aspects of our business strategy, we strive to keep operating costs as low as possible. Among the factors which have enabled us to do this are: labor costs that are generally lower than full-price department and specialty stores due to a store design that creates a self-service retail format and due to the utilization of labor saving technologies; economies of scale with respect to general and administrative costs resulting from centralized merchandising, marketing, and purchasing decisions; and flexible store layout criteria which facilitate conversion of existing buildings to our formats.

Information Systems

We continue to invest in new information systems and technology to provide a platform for growth over the next several years. Current initiatives include continued enhancements to our stores, supply chain, merchandising, and cybersecurity systems. These initiatives support future growth, the execution and achievement of our plans, ongoing stability, and compliance.

Distribution

We operate distribution processing facilities where we receive and ship all of our merchandise to our stores. These distribution centers are large, highly automated, and built to suit our specific off-price business model. We also operate warehouse facilities for packaway storage.

We utilize a combination of owned, leased, and third-party cross-dock facilities to distribute merchandise from distribution centers to stores on a regional basis. Shipments are made by contract carriers to the stores three to six times per week depending on location.

We believe that our distribution centers and warehouses with their current expansion capabilities will provide adequate processing and storage capacity to support our near term store growth plans. Information on the size and locations of our distribution centers and warehouse facilities is found in ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.

Marketing and Advertising

We use a variety of marketing and advertising media to communicate our value proposition to customers—savings off the same brands carried at department or specialty stores every day. This includes a mix of television, digital channels, radio, and new store grand openings. Within digital channels, we continue to grow our social media, digital video, and digital audio presence to communicate our brand positions. We believe that a mix of channels is important to reach our customers.

Trademarks

The trademarks for ROSS®, Ross Dress For Less®, and dd’s DISCOUNTS® have been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Human Capital

As of January 28, 2023, we had approximately 101,000 total associates, which includes both full- and part-time associates in our stores, distribution centers, and buying and corporate offices. The majority of these associates worked in our retail stores. Additionally, we hire temporary associates, especially during peak seasons. We have no associates that are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Management considers the relationship between the Company and our associates to be strong.

Our associates play essential roles in not only delivering great values to our customers but also evolving and strengthening the culture at Ross. We strive to have a workforce that reflects our values, supports our business growth, and strengthens our communities. Throughout our organization, we recognize and appreciate the importance of attracting, retaining, and developing our associates and we have a number of key programs to do so.

Our culture. Values start with our people. At Ross, we strive to do what is right for our associates, customers, and the communities we serve. We are also committed to promoting an inclusive culture and work environment in which our associates are treated with dignity and respect.

Talent development. The professional growth of our associates is important to our success as a business. We identify and enumerate key competencies we believe are critical to our ability to execute our business model and deliver the values our customers expect. We utilize these competencies in the hiring, development, evaluation, and future planning of our teams. We provide training opportunities to help associates grow and build their careers. Our associates, managers, and executives may participate in technical and leadership development activities. We support associates interested in leadership roles by offering opportunities to gain experience and build the skills necessary to advance within the Company.

Compensation and benefits. We are dedicated to providing our associates with competitive pay and benefits, a safe working environment, recognition for achievements, channels to share opinions and ideas, opportunities to give back, support for educational advancement, and merchandise and other discounts. We are also continuing to invest in our associates with programs that assist with physical, emotional, and financial wellness.

Diversity, equality, and inclusion. We care about our associates and the communities we serve. We are committed to building diverse teams and an inclusive culture that respects, values, and celebrates the diversity of backgrounds, identities, and ideas of those who work and shop with us. We are focused on executing strategies to support our commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Community and social impact. We provide our associates the opportunity to give back to their communities and make a social impact through various programs such as our matching gift program, volunteer time off for eligible associates, and a scholarship program for our associates and their dependents.

Competition

We believe the principal competitive factors in the off-price retail apparel and home fashion industry are offering significant discounts on brand name merchandise, offering a well-balanced assortment that appeals to our target customers, and consistently providing store environments that are convenient and easy to shop. To execute this concept, we continue to make strategic investments in our organization. We also continue to make improvements to our merchandising systems to strengthen our ability to plan, buy, and allocate product to our stores. We operate in an attractive sector of retail which offers both value and convenience. We believe that we are well-positioned within the off-price retail apparel and home fashion industry to compete based on these factors.

Nevertheless, the retail apparel and home fashion markets are highly fragmented and competitive. We face a challenging and rapidly changing macroeconomic and retail environment that creates intense competition for our business from online retailers, department stores, specialty stores, discount stores, warehouse stores, other off-price retailers, and manufacturer-owned outlet stores, many of which are units of large national or regional chains that have substantially greater resources. The retail apparel and home-related businesses may become even more competitive in the future.

Seasonality

Although our off-price business is subject to less seasonality than traditional retailers, sales are generally higher during the second half of the year, which includes the back-to-school and holiday seasons.

Available Information

The internet address for our corporate website is www.rossstores.com. Our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, Proxy Statements, and any amendments to those reports are made available free of charge on or through the Investors section of our corporate website, promptly after being electronically filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Our annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report is found in the Social Responsibility section of our corporate website. That report and the other information found on our corporate website are not part of this report or of any other report or regulatory filing we file with or furnish to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

The following sets forth the names and ages of our executive officers, indicating each person’s principal occupation or employment during at least the past five years. The term of office is at the discretion of our Board of Directors.

Name						Age						Position
Barbara Rentler						65						Chief Executive Officer
Michael J. Hartshorn						55						Group President and Chief Operating Officer
Michael Kobayashi						58						President and Chief Capability Officer
Brian Morrow						63						President and Chief Merchandising Officer, dd’s DISCOUNTS
Adam Orvos						58						Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Ms. Rentler has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors since 2014. From 2009 to 2014, she was President and Chief Merchandising Officer, Ross Dress for Less and Executive Vice President, Merchandising, from 2006 to 2009. She also served at dd’s DISCOUNTS as Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer from 2005 to 2006, and Senior Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer from 2004 to 2005. Prior to that, she held various merchandising positions since joining the Company in 1986.

Mr. Hartshorn has served as Group President and Chief Operating Officer since August 2019 and a member of the Board of Directors since March 2021. Previously, he was Group Executive Vice President, Finance and Legal, Chief Financial Officer in 2019; Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer from 2018 to 2019; Group Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer from 2015 to 2018; Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 2014 to 2015; and Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Financial Officer from 2012 to 2014. He was also Group Vice President, Finance and Treasurer from 2011 to 2012, and Vice President, Finance and Treasurer from 2006 to 2011. From 2002 to 2006, he held a number of management roles in the Ross IT and supply chain organizations. He initially joined the Company in 2000 as Director and Assistant Controller. For seven years prior to joining Ross, Mr. Hartshorn held various financial roles at The May Department Stores Company.

Mr. Kobayashi has served as President and Chief Capability Officer since February 2022. Prior to this role, he served as President, Operations and Technology from 2019 to 2022; Group Executive Vice President, Supply Chain, Merchant Operations, and Technology from 2014 to 2019; and Executive Vice President, Supply Chain, Allocation, and Chief Information Officer from 2010 to 2014. Previously, he was Group Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Chief Information Officer from 2008 to 2010, and Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer from 2004 to 2008. Prior to joining Ross, Mr. Kobayashi was a Partner with Accenture, providing consulting services to clients in Accenture’s Retail & Consumer Goods practice.

Mr. Morrow has served as President and Chief Merchandising Officer, dd’s DISCOUNTS since December 2015. Prior to joining Ross, Mr. Morrow served as President, Chief Merchandising Officer of Stein Mart from 2014 to 2015 and Executive Vice President and Chief Merchandising Officer from 2010 to 2014. From 2008 to 2009, he served as Executive Vice President, General Merchandise Manager at Macy’s West. He also held roles as Senior Vice President, General Merchandise Manager at Mervyn’s in 2008 and Macy’s North/Marshall Field’s from 2006 to 2008. For approximately 20 years prior to this, Mr. Morrow held various merchandising roles at The May Department Stores Company.

Mr. Orvos has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since October 2021. Mr. Orvos joined Ross in January 2021 as Group Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Administration. Prior to joining Ross, Mr. Orvos served as Senior Vice President, Retail Finance and Global Financial Planning and Analysis at Lowe’s from 2019 to 2020; Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Neiman Marcus from 2018 to 2019; and Executive Vice President, Retail and then Chief Executive Officer at Total Wine & More from 2016 to 2017. Mr. Orvos held several senior management positions at Belk Department Stores from 2006 to 2016, where he eventually became its Chief Financial Officer. For almost 20 years prior to this, Mr. Orvos held various financial roles at The May Department Stores Company, including Chief Financial Officer of their Foley’s division.