Ross 2014 Annual Report Download - page 17

Distribution
We own and operate five distribution processing facilities – two in California, one in Pennsylvania, and two in South Carolina. We
ship all of our merchandise to our stores through these distribution centers, which are large, highly automated, and built to suit
our specific off-price business model. An additional distribution center in Shafter, California is currently under construction and
expected to open in 2015.
Currently we own four and lease three other warehouse facilities for packaway storage. We also use other third-party facilities as
needed for storage of packaway inventory.
We also utilize third-party cross dock facilities to distribute merchandise to stores on a regional basis. Shipments are made by
contract carriers to the stores three to six times per week depending on location.
We believe that our distribution centers with their current expansion capabilities will provide adequate processing capacity to
support our current store growth. Information on the size and locations of our distribution centers and warehouse facilities is
found under “Properties” in Item 2.
Advertising
Advertising for Ross Dress for Less relies primarily on television to communicate the Ross value proposition—savings off the
same brands carried at leading department stores every day. This strategy reflects our belief that television is the most efficient
and cost effective medium for communicating our brand position. While television is our primary advertising medium, we
continue to utilize additional channels to communicate our brand position. Advertising for dd’s DISCOUNTS is primarily focused
on new store grand openings and local media initiatives.
Trademarks
The trademarks for Ross Dress For Less® and dd’s DISCOUNTS® have been registered with the United States Patent and
Trademark Office.
Employees
As of January 31, 2015, we had approximately 71,400 total employees, which includes both full and part-time employees.
Additionally, we hire temporary employees especially during the peak seasons. Our employees are non-union. Management
considers the relationship between the Company and our employees to be good.
Competition
We believe the principal competitive factors in the off-price retail apparel and home fashion industry are offering significant
discounts on brand name merchandise, offering a well-balanced assortment that appeals to our target customers, and
consistently providing store environments that are convenient and easy to shop. To execute this concept, we continue to make
strategic investments in our merchandising organization. We also continue to make improvements to our core merchandising
system to strengthen our ability to plan, buy, and allocate product based on more local versus regional trends. We believe that
we are well-positioned to compete based on each of these factors.
Nevertheless, the retail apparel market is highly fragmented and competitive. We face a challenging macro-economic and retail
environment that creates intense competition for business from department stores, specialty stores, discount stores, warehouse
stores, other off-price retailers, and manufacturer-owned outlet stores, many of which are units of large national or regional
chains that have substantially greater resources. We also compete to some degree with retailers that sell apparel and home
fashions through catalogs or online. The retail apparel and home-related businesses may become even more competitive in
the future.
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