Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

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Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by storewanderer »

The Ross in Susanville closed. Goodwill is taking the space. This may actually be an upgrade.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by rwsandiego »

Ross has upgraded its stores in Phoenix and the one in Flagstaff is great. Sorry to hear that did not extend to the entire chain. I never shopped there in San Diego because their stores were so depressing.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by jamcool »

storewanderer wrote: June 11th, 2021, 10:49 pm The Ross in Susanville closed. Goodwill is taking the space. This may actually be an upgrade.
There’s not much difference between the average Ross store and a Goodwill
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2021, 9:58 am Ross has upgraded its stores in Phoenix and the one in Flagstaff is great. Sorry to hear that did not extend to the entire chain. I never shopped there in San Diego because their stores were so depressing.
What does the upgrade involve?

Last time I went to Ross in Reno, and this is a store in a safe area- in Northwest Reno- the racks were less than 50% stocked, the "loss prevention" was a teenager and I watched a couple people run right out the door with a pile of clothing without paying as she was turned in the other direction talking to another employee about something not work related. The floors didn't look like they had been cleaned in years and the entire place was the usual dive that Ross has always been. At least I didn't find any soiled clothing, but there wasn't much to look at with how empty the racks were. I was surprised the shoplifters even found anything they wanted.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: June 13th, 2021, 11:15 am
rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2021, 9:58 am Ross has upgraded its stores in Phoenix and the one in Flagstaff is great. Sorry to hear that did not extend to the entire chain. I never shopped there in San Diego because their stores were so depressing.
What does the upgrade involve?

Last time I went to Ross in Reno, and this is a store in a safe area- in Northwest Reno- the racks were less than 50% stocked, the "loss prevention" was a teenager and I watched a couple people run right out the door with a pile of clothing without paying as she was turned in the other direction talking to another employee about something not work related. The floors didn't look like they had been cleaned in years and the entire place was the usual dive that Ross has always been. At least I didn't find any soiled clothing, but there wasn't much to look at with how empty the racks were. I was surprised the shoplifters even found anything they wanted.
It's easy to dump on Ross but it's one of the great success stories in retail. As I've said before on this forum, the higher-end stores get the headlines while stores that focus on the low end are often looked at as being rundown, unimaginative, or a dive. But places like Ross, Dollar General, Five Below, Dollar Tree, etc... serve a large portion of the population that feels the rest of retail has passed them by or they feel uncomfortable shopping at. I know one of the founders of Ross so perhaps my opinion is clouded. I personally don't like shopping at Ross but as an investor, I love it as its made me a nice return.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: June 13th, 2021, 3:18 pm

It's easy to dump on Ross but it's one of the great success stories in retail. As I've said before on this forum, the higher-end stores get the headlines while stores that focus on the low end are often looked at as being rundown, unimaginative, or a dive. But places like Ross, Dollar General, Five Below, Dollar Tree, etc... serve a large portion of the population that feels the rest of retail has passed them by or they feel uncomfortable shopping at. I know one of the founders of Ross so perhaps my opinion is clouded. I personally don't like shopping at Ross but as an investor, I love it as its made me a nice return.
Yes, Ross definitely has a large customer base... giving them an alternative to buying clothes and household goods at Wal Mart which is the only other option in a lot of cases. Also placing stores closer to people's houses so they are more of a neighborhood store helps. Also having extended hours of operation late at night helps.

Still I find Ross to be one of the most miserable places to shop. Between the "loss prevention" positioned at the entry, the long line for checkout, the locked restrooms that the employee has to buzz you into, the strange fitting room count in-count out set up, I find the whole thing to feel like shopping in what is a borderline high security facility. I know Ross pushes very hard for the stores to keep the racks at least organized by size but it doesn't take many customers to mess that up quickly.

I don't think your opinion is clouded at all- the financial results validate that.

Burlington seems to have a better mix and far higher volume stores from what I am observing in my area... but Ross certainly beats them on store count.

Probably another big reason Ross continues to make money is they focus just on selling products in their stores and not pursuing a money-pit e-commerce strategy which is not really something that would be efficient for a closeout type retailer (as Burlington learned).

Now, back to this store closure in Susanville- Ross was there for about 10 years. Marshalls showed up within the last 3 or 4 years and I don't think it does that well. JC Penney used to have a store there which was built in the early 90's (was next to the Marshalls building) but it was gone by the mid 90's. Wal Mart also opened in the early 90's there... I really wonder if Marshalls would have opened there, had Ross not opened. My general observation is Marshalls seems to follow Ross around.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: June 13th, 2021, 3:33 pm
babs wrote: June 13th, 2021, 3:18 pm

It's easy to dump on Ross but it's one of the great success stories in retail. As I've said before on this forum, the higher-end stores get the headlines while stores that focus on the low end are often looked at as being rundown, unimaginative, or a dive. But places like Ross, Dollar General, Five Below, Dollar Tree, etc... serve a large portion of the population that feels the rest of retail has passed them by or they feel uncomfortable shopping at. I know one of the founders of Ross so perhaps my opinion is clouded. I personally don't like shopping at Ross but as an investor, I love it as its made me a nice return.
Yes, Ross definitely has a large customer base... giving them an alternative to buying clothes and household goods at Wal Mart which is the only other option in a lot of cases. Also placing stores closer to people's houses so they are more of a neighborhood store helps. Also having extended hours of operation late at night helps.

Still I find Ross to be one of the most miserable places to shop. Between the "loss prevention" positioned at the entry, the long line for checkout, the locked restrooms that the employee has to buzz you into, the strange fitting room count in-count out set up, I find the whole thing to feel like shopping in what is a borderline high security facility. I know Ross pushes very hard for the stores to keep the racks at least organized by size but it doesn't take many customers to mess that up quickly.

I don't think your opinion is clouded at all- the financial results validate that.

Burlington seems to have a better mix and far higher volume stores from what I am observing in my area... but Ross certainly beats them on store count.

Probably another big reason Ross continues to make money is they focus just on selling products in their stores and not pursuing a money-pit e-commerce strategy which is not really something that would be efficient for a closeout type retailer (as Burlington learned).

Now, back to this store closure in Susanville- Ross was there for about 10 years. Marshalls showed up within the last 3 or 4 years and I don't think it does that well. JC Penney used to have a store there which was built in the early 90's (was next to the Marshalls building) but it was gone by the mid 90's. Wal Mart also opened in the early 90's there... I really wonder if Marshalls would have opened there, had Ross not opened. My general observation is Marshalls seems to follow Ross around.
There's a Ross near my house that I occasionally shop at. I don't find Ross to be a bad store and as a male who doesn't necessarily need to wear the most trendy clothing, it serves my needs well. I've actually noticed that as a male I find that Ross has a better men's selection than TJMaxx or Marshalls. I also don't find the shopping experience to be much different between Ross, TJMaxx, or Marshalls. A Marshalls opened near my house (in a former Fry's supermarket) and I think I've only been there once.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by mbz321 »

arizonaguy wrote: June 13th, 2021, 4:00 pm
There's a Ross near my house that I occasionally shop at. I don't find Ross to be a bad store and as a male who doesn't necessarily need to wear the most trendy clothing, it serves my needs well. I've actually noticed that as a male I find that Ross has a better men's selection than TJMaxx or Marshalls. I also don't find the shopping experience to be much different between Ross, TJMaxx, or Marshalls. A Marshalls opened near my house (in a former Fry's supermarket) and I think I've only been there once.

I've given up with Ross. At least in my area, no matter what time of day you go in, the checkout lines are atrocious and the cashiers (if you are lucky and there is more than one) move at a snail's pace. Just last week I stopped in to find some casual shorts. While they had some, it was all no-name brand clothing with meh pricing. I ended up buying shorts at Costco instead which were actually less expensive and likely a somewhat better quality.

TJ Maxx always seems way more female-focused and I think I've only been in one once or twice in my lifetime. Marshall's tends to have a bit more men's clothing, but personally I've never found anything that great in one.

As you sort of hinted at, (Ross/TJX/Burlington/Gabe's/etc.) are basically competing for the same customer now and the 'treasure hunt' type atmosphere of finding cheap name-brand designer items seems to be pretty much gone. With big department stores going belly-up and the remaining ones are tightening their ordering, all that is really left to go around is 'cheap' off-brand clothing but not always a matching cheap price to accompany it.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: June 13th, 2021, 11:15 am
rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2021, 9:58 am Ross has upgraded its stores in Phoenix and the one in Flagstaff is great. Sorry to hear that did not extend to the entire chain. I never shopped there in San Diego because their stores were so depressing.
What does the upgrade involve? ...
Clean, well-stocked stores, racks that are not crammed with disheveled merchandise, lines that are not interminable, and a security guard at the front door who is reasonably friendly.

Let's face it: you don't shop at Ross for the ambience. You shop there for the prices.
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Re: Ross Store closure-Susanville, CA

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: June 13th, 2021, 11:27 pm Clean, well-stocked stores, racks that are not crammed with disheveled merchandise, lines that are not interminable, and a security guard at the front door who is reasonably friendly.

Let's face it: you don't shop at Ross for the ambience. You shop there for the prices.
Do they redecorate or anything like that?

Do they shorten the length of the racks?

Is the merchandise organized any better? For instance at least short sleeve shirts all together (spaced out by size), long sleeve shirts elsewhere?
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