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Texas Southern University. . . Ross Dress For Less. . .

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Texas Southern University

Ross Dress for Less

Vicki Hicks
Principles of Management
Dr. Rochelle Parks-Yancy
February 4, 2016

Ross Dress for Less
The origins of Ross Dress for Less began in 1957 when Morris Ross opened the first Ross junior department store. The Ross that is popular today was incorporated in 1982 when the Ross junior department store chain was purchased by a group of investors. Comprising of only six stores in the San Francisco area, Ross had considerable growth when it was converted from junior department stores to an off-price format. "Ross Stores ' mission is to offer competitive values to its target customers by focusing on the following key strategic objectives: achieve an appropriate level of brands…show more content…
This gives it a competitive over such retailers as Walmart and Kohls. The strategy also focuses on variable costs. The functional level of Ross is shown in the table below.
Competitive Strategy
Employees
Marketing
General Operations
Store Design
Low Cost
(Functions optimized to keep variable costs at a minimum)
Maintain the right amount of employees to handle customer issues and keep shelves stocked
Maintain a conservative marketing
Take advantage of prime selling seasons
Focus on variable costs that affect store performance like payroll
Focus on Misses section

Initial Public Offering
With the need to fund additional stores, Ross offered its first initial public offering in 1985. Ross, by this time, had a total store count of 107 which was a significant jump from the six stores that was Ross three years earlier. By the end of 1985, Ross had stores in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, and Oregon. It also boasted sales of $375.9 million. With record-setting growth and record-setting profit, Ross opened an additional 41 stores in 1985 and 39 stores in 1986 reaching Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia. Annual sales would then surpass the $500 million mark by the end of the year. Even with the tremendous sales, the company had to close 25 unprofitable stores in Texas and Oklahoma. Ross endured a loss that year of $41.1 million. Ross Dress for Less is an S&P 500, Fortune 500 and Nasdaq 100 (ROST).

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