Ross Stores has opened 47 locations across 15 states and territories during June and July, adding 35 Ross Dress for Less stores and 12 dd’s Discounts units. The company said the latest wave keeps it on track to open approximately 110 stores in 2026, according to its expansion announcement.
The new units broaden the Ross banner in Puerto Rico, New York and Michigan while deepening its presence in Sunbelt markets. The dd’s openings remain concentrated in established markets including California, Florida, North Carolina and Texas. Ross’s property-development chief said strong 2025 openings and this spring’s cohort supported the decision to keep building.
After the additions, Ross reports 1,952 namesake stores across 44 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico, plus 376 dd’s Discounts locations in 23 states. The retailer generated $22.8 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue, figures included in the same company release.
A physical growth bet on value
The pace is notable because Ross is expanding a mature store network rather than testing a handful of flagships. Retail Dive reports that the 2026 plan equates to roughly 5% unit growth and that management intends to sustain that pace into next year. Group President and Chief Operating Officer Michael Hartshorn told analysts in May that lease availability was the best the company had seen, while only about 20% of new-store growth was going into newer markets.
Recent operating results give Ross room to keep investing. In its first-quarter earnings release, the company reported $6.0 billion in sales, a 17% comparable-store increase and $650 million in net income. Management attributed the quarter’s sales strength primarily to customer traffic and maintained a value-focused outlook for the off-price channel.
Ross is also balancing expansion with work on existing stores. Retail Dive reported that the company paused a refresh program after updating about half of its fleet, allowing management to evaluate whether the remaining stores need additional changes to perimeter signage, wayfinding and cosmetics. That is a useful discipline: opening velocity can create growth, but the established base still carries most of the revenue and customer experience.
What competitors should read from the map
For traditional apparel and home retailers, the signal is not simply that consumers want lower prices. Ross is pairing value perception with a replicable box, opportunistic real estate and market-by-market density. The latest openings favor both newer geographic reach and deeper coverage in areas where the company already understands traffic and merchandising patterns.
Operators competing for the same value-conscious shopper should watch three indicators: Ross’s new-store productivity, the share of growth coming from infill rather than new territories, and whether traffic remains the sales driver after the latest cohort matures. The expansion commits capital to the idea that off-price demand is durable. If that thesis holds, full-price and mid-market chains will need clearer opening price points, faster inventory turns and a sharper reason for shoppers to pay more.