Off-price retailer Ross plans another Long Island store, after opening 4 in region

Off-price retailer Ross Dress for Less doubled its number of Long Island stores to four this month, less than a year after entering the region, and the chain isn’t done with its expansion plans for the Island.

Ross will open a store this year at 501 Montauk Hwy. in West Babylon, Connie Kao, group vice president of investor relations for Ross, said in an email.

A retailer of off-price clothes and home goods, Ross opened its first Long Island store in July in Hempstead Village Commons, followed by a store in Farmingville in October. Ross also opened stores in Lake Grove and Riverhead on March 7.

Kao wouldn’t disclose whether more Long Island stores are planned, or whether another will open on the Island before the West Babylon location.

"It’s too early to provide the specifics, but we are excited to grow our presence in the greater New York region later this year," she said.

The average Ross store has 55 to 60 part- and full-time employees, she said.

Ross Stores Inc. is growing quickly nationwide, as the chain benefits from significant sales growth from more shoppers concerned about their budgets and the economy.

The Dublin, California-based company ended 2025 with 2,267 stores, consisting of 1,904 Ross Dress for Less locations and 363 DD's Discount stores.

Over the last decade, the company has opened an average of about 80 stores annually.

The company plans to open 110 stores this year, with 85 being Ross stores, while the rest will be DD’s Discount stores, Ross Stores Inc. CEO James G. Conroy told analysts during an earnings call March 3.

The growing number of shoppers across all income brackets who are worried about the affordability of goods and their ability to stretch their dollars is helping to raise customer counts and sales at Ross, said Brett Husslein, equity analyst at Morningstar Research Services LLC, a financial services firm in Chicago.

Ross has a strong competitive advantage because of its ability to "procure inventory and merchandise ... at such a low price and ... have the flexibility to do that and fulfill that need," he told Newsday about two weeks ago.

Ross Stores’ sales in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 31, were $6.6 billion, up 12% from $5.9 billion in the same period a year earlier, the company reported March 3.

At stores open at least one year, sales grew in 12 of the last 13 quarters, with the highest increase, 9%, occurring in the last quarter.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.comToryParrish1

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.