Ross opening at least 2 more Long Island stores after off-price retailer's debut in region this summer
Ross Dress For Less opened its first Long Island store in Hempstead, seen here in July. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Off-price retailer Ross Dress for Less’ entrance into the Long Island market is expanding quickly as the chain breaks into new areas across the country.
The clothing and home goods retailer, which opened a store in Hempstead in July, plans to open several more on Long Island, including in Farmingville and Riverhead.
“The new store growth in the Long Island market is part of our continued expansion on the East Coast. We opened our first Long Island store in … [July] and are excited for future growth opportunities in this market,” the company, based in Dublin, California, said in an email.
Ross’ Farmingville store is expected to open in October, the company said, declining to provide more details. The store will occupy a 20,934-square-foot space on North Ocean Avenue in part of a former Kmart in Expressway Plaza.
In Riverhead, Ross and Boot Barn will take portions of a space in Roanoke Plaza vacated last year by T.J. Maxx, which relocated from 1120 Old Country Rd. to another shopping center in the town.
Of T.J. Maxx’s former 43,150-square-foot space, Ross will take 22,221 square feet and Boot Barn will take 14,630 square feet, said Kristen Moore, a spokeswoman for Brixmor Property Group, the Manhattan-based real estate firm that owns the Riverhead shopping center.
Ross anticipates that its Riverhead store will open in 2026.
Ross stores each employ about 55 to 60 full- and part-time employees on average, the company said.
The company declined to disclose where else Ross stores will open on Long Island but said, “Ross will continue to open stores on Long Island as a part of our planned store expansion program in 2026 and beyond.”
As of May 3, the end of its fiscal first quarter, Ross Stores Inc. had 2,205 stores, of which 1,847 were Ross locations in 44 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam. The remaining 358 stores were dd’s Discounts, which sells clothing and home goods, in 22 states.
Ross Stores Inc. opened 89 stores in fiscal 2024 and expects to open 90 — 80 Ross and 10 dd’s — in the current fiscal year.
The company plans to eventually grow to 2,900 Ross stores and 700 dd's Discounts locations.
Off-price retailers overall have been pulling market share from regular-price department stores for years as the discounters appeal more to higher-income shoppers looking for deals.
But Ross isn’t faring as well as T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, which are owned by The TJX Companies Inc., and some other off-price competitors.
Ross’ total sales in its first quarter grew 2.6% to $5 billion, compared with the same period last year, mostly due to new stores being opened, but sales were flat at stores open at least one year.
“One of the biggest concerns is the downtick in spending among core Ross customers. Compared to the TJX banners, Ross has a much heavier exposure to lower-income customers who are far more sensitive to the choppiness in the economy,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at Manhattan-based market research firm GlobalData, wrote in a note in May.
New and pending U.S. tariffs could affect Ross' profitability, since half the merchandise it sells comes from China, so the retailer might raise its prices, company executives told analysts during an earnings call in May.
"You can pass along the price, but we want to be very careful with price increases. We don't want to be the first one to raise prices and we want to make sure that we keep our value or pricing umbrella versus mainstream retail," Michael Hartshorn, Ross' chief operating officer, told analysts.
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.
