Retail Watchers

Ross closed a store in Concord, California years ago in the 2000s that was a dump. It was an 80s era store that was dirty and messy. Shoplifting was a major factor. The Burlington Coat Factory opened in the shopping center. It closed down also due to Shoplifting.

The next city over in Pleasant Hill had a Marshall's that closed down. Ross took over that location years later. Then years later Burlington also moved to that shopping center with Ross. There is a Target in the middle and to the right is Ross and to the left is Burlington. I think they are oversaturated.

Years ago in the late 90s Ross was notorious for hiring tons of high school kids and young college students. Ross understaffs its stores to the point of extreme stress. No one wants to work there for minimum wage and you rarely ever see any employees last more than a few months. Morale is so low and they keep having to find new people.

storewanderer wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 12:21 am

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?

"Decor" and fixtures are the same as the CA stores. They are better-organized. Maybe they just run better stores in Arizona than they do in California and Nevada.

rwsandiego wrote: ↑June 14th, 2021, 8:08 pm
"Decor" and fixtures are the same as the CA stores. They are better-organized. Maybe they just run better stores in Arizona than they do in California and Nevada.

How is traffic in these stores? Are they better organized due to having more labor or less traffic?

There has been very little change over time to Ross' decor package that I've seen. A brand new Ross store opened in Lake Stevens last year that looked basically identical to every other Ross store in the area, some of which have been open for 25+ years with no significant changes or remodeling. The only real difference between some of the older stores and the newer ones is in the checkstands (newer stores use a setup similar to what TJX stores use).

To be fair the decor package is generic enough that it still holds up, but there are few companies that I've seen use a decor package for that long with so few changes.