Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Adam Orvos: Yes, sure. Alex, this is Adam. So given our guidance of flat to minus 2% comps, we will have some deleverage impact from sales. Markdowns will be higher than last year in fourth quarter, but not as impactful as in third quarter. Domestic freight, we see as slightly neutral, seeing some benefit in rate, but offset by still elevated fuel prices. Ocean freight will probably be the most tangible tailwind for us. As you remember last year, we are getting into the period where rates were escalating significantly, demand was high. So that will be a tailwind for us. And then given our outperformance last year and our underperformance this year, incentive costs will be lower in Q4 versus last year. And then finally, depending how the end of the year plays out, we’ll likely see some pressure from packaway timing in fourth quarter also.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. That’s super helpful. Maybe could I just follow-up on your inventory levels? I think you said they were up low double-digits year-over-year exiting the quarter, which seems like a pretty lean level. So maybe could you tell us, do you feel like you have enough heading into the fourth quarter or how are you feeling about the levels and then just the broader assortment?

Michael Hartshorn: Overall, we feel really good about where we are at the end of the third quarter. As we said in the prepared remarks, we ended up about 12%, which was a big improvement when we €“ from the second quarter when we were up 55% and the increase over last year is really packaway inventory. So we were at 41% versus 31% last year. And last year was relatively low versus our historical levels because we use a substantial amount of our packaway to chase sales that were well above our plan.

Unidentified Analyst: Thank you so much.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Mark Altschwager with Robert W. Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Mark Altschwager: Good afternoon, thanks for taking my question. What do you view as the key drivers to the improving comp trends you saw this quarter? Are you seeing evidence that the trade-down is now occurring? Do you think this is a reflection of the AUR strategy you outlined last quarter? Just if you could expand on your overall assessments there, that would be great. Thank you.

Barbara Rentler: Sure. From the second quarter to the third quarter, from an assortment perspective, we went in and reset our values and got them to where we believe they need to be in this very promotional environment. So we rightsized our values through some markdowns in some places. And in some places, we rightsized some of our inventory as we were watching shifts go on in the business. And the other big shift is apparel and home for us and in the quarter performed relatively the same, but our shoe business, which was our best-performing business, was really, really fueled by strong values on branded products and availability in the market.

Michael Hartshorn: And in terms of the trade-down customer with so many moving parts in the economy, it’s difficult to parse out the individual drivers of the improvement. We have not seen a material shift in spending trends across different income demographics, but delivering better bargains to our consumer like we played the most significant role as it typically does.