Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Chuck Grom: Can you guys hear me?

Michael Hartshorn: We can.

Adam Orvos: we can.

Chuck Grom: Okay. Okay, I will call on that. Thanks for the great quarter. I wanted to see if you guys talking about the home category a little bit. You called out cosmetics and accessories being areas of strength. Your largest peer the other day talked about home being strong and I was wondering if you could talk about that and also tie in what’s happened with Bed Bath?

Barbara Rentler: I’m sorry, I didn’t catch the last piece you said with?

Chuck Grom: If you could just tie in any better because you think you saw in the quarter and could expect to see in the coming quarters from Bed Bath and Beyond?

Barbara Rentler: From Bed Bath and Beyond, okay sorry. Home also performed above the chain average. And so we feel that there is a lot of growth left and home for us pretty broad-based across the board. In terms of Bed Bath and Beyond, two thoughts. One is that they lost a lot of buying priorities, they see what’s happening and the classifications that they carried, where we have overlap. I think over time we could pick-up more volume perhaps, but I think that’s very hard to measure. And you have to have overlapping locations. So, I think there’s some opportunity how to measure that. I’m not really sure how to measure it. I think of it more as a total home package. We feel like we have a lot of growth in homes still ahead of us and again I think that’s pretty broad-based.

Chuck Grom: And just as a quick follow-up. If you like the home category is starting to form a base after several quarters now of attrition?

Barbara Rentler: You mean specifically to us or do you mean in the world?

Chuck Grom: I guess both because it seems like more people are starting to talk about the home category starting to form a bottom.

Barbara Rentler: Yes. Look, I think it depends on where you are in your development as the home business. So we have some businesses that are more developed than others. And so I think as we develop some of those other businesses that will help us to continue to grow that as opposed to if we were in every business and everything was developed, so all businesses within our home business are not created equal. And so I think for us we still see opportunity. In terms of the outside world gas, there are a lot of a lot of people in-home and it goes back to what you’re offering. So if I take the whole value equation for us in the entire box that would include home and making sure that we have the right values to continue to grow that business and then to maximize the areas where we are still what I would call under-developed.

Chuck Grom: Great answer. Thank you very much.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez with Citigroup. Please proceed with your question.

Paul Lejuez: Hey, thanks, guys. Curious how dd’s performed relative to Ross. I think you said you saw improvement at both, but I’m curious on an absolute basis, how DDs performed. I think it’s been underperforming for about a year now. And so also curious if you think that underperformance continues or perhaps do easier comparisons cause dd’s to start to outperform the Ross concept just whatever is built into your assumption? Thanks.

Michael Hartshorn: Hi, Paul. I would say, as we mentioned in the commentary dd’s performance also improved during the quarter versus the first quarter. And we believe that’s a combination of better assortments and like Ross moderating inflation. That said, dd’s sales trends continued to trail Ross. As a reminder, the dd’s average household income is more impacted by the inflation, especially on necessities. Their average household income is $40,000 to $45,000 compared to $60,000 to $65,000 for Ross. Our strategy here is very similar. We are very focused on offering strong values, which is very important to the dd’s customer today.