Shoppers patiently waiting for holiday deals at downtown San Francisco’s hottest store may soon have another outlet for treasure hunting.
The Ross Dress for Less at Market and Fourth streets — one of the few outlets slammed with customers in a struggling retail corridor — could have a familiar neighbor next year: another Ross.
The company, headquartered in Dublin, plans to open another store a block away at 901 Market St., which has housed a Nordstrom Rack and then, briefly, the SF Dems headquarters.
The fact that Ross is expanding makes it an anomaly in a stretch of the city pockmarked by vacancies. Maybe it’s a sign of the times: Unlike nearby high-end retailers like Supreme and Saint Laurent, Ross is a bargain hunter’s haunt. Its model relies on buying products from well-known brands that fail to sell or are overproduced and offloading them at a discount.
“The low price with the name brand, that’s what I like about it,” said Maryanne Dillen, a frequent Ross shopper who scored some pee pads and treats for her dog, Madt, on a recent afternoon. She hadn’t heard about the expansion but hoped it would happen soon: “I would absolutely go.”
Ross recently signed a 10-year lease at the current location at 799 Market St., where it has operated for nearly 40 years, and confirmed to the The Standard that it’s leasing the second space as well. The company hasn’t provided a timeline for opening the new location.
The current space spans more than 55,000 square feet on four floors; the new digs will be 40,000 square feet.
It’s common to see queues forming outside the store, as it limits the number of people inside in an effort to curb theft. The store has cash registers across two levels but remains crowded with shoppers winding through the narrow aisles stocked with impulse-purchase bait.
Ross’ model works, in part, because it frequently refreshes its stock and has no online retail component: To score a bargain, shoppers need to come in and rifle through the racks and shelves. You never know what you’ll find, and that’s the point.
Raymond Francis of San Francisco said he makes a twice-monthly pilgrimage to the Ross downtown. He hopes a second location will tone down the crowds. “I think it would be good for the lines,” he said. “The lines in here are very long.”
A security guard at the entrance waves people through as other shoppers leave; additional guards wander the store with front-facing cameras strapped to their chests to record interactions.
The lines outside can lure in curious passersby.
“I saw a really long line here once, and I was intrigued,” said Emmy, a Gen Z shopper who on Tuesday waited for the first time to shop with a friend, Shirin. “I was curious about it.”
The duo, who declined to share their last names, citing privacy concerns, took BART into San Francisco from the East Bay to visit the mall and surrounding stores. “I browse online, but I like to shop in real life,” Emmy added.
It would be surprising to see another Ross location a block away, they said, but it would be better than yet another empty storefront (which they had seen plenty of while strolling through the struggling SF Centre mall).
Not everyone expressed delight at a new location. Megan Fisher, a tourist from London who stopped into Ross to find a gift for her mom, thought a second location nearby would be “a little weird.” Another Gen Z duo, Anu Ganzorig and Yas Garcia, similarly thought the proximity would be “kind of crazy.”
But, they admit, they’d shop there, especially if it has new departments: “That’s a no-brainer,” said Garcia, who visits Ross frequently with her mom. “It’s addictive.”
Although it might seem counterintuitive to have two stores so close together, Ross’ expansion makes sense to Simeon Siegel, a senior analyst at BMO Capital Markets who covers retail.
“As wild as it sounds, off-pricers tend to congregate near each other and near themselves,” he said.
Ross and similar retailers T.J. Maxx and Burlington Coat Factory often have a surplus of product, so the limiting factor for sales is physical space, according to Siegel. “Unlike a brand that might see cannibalization from adding another store nearby, off-pricers find that the more stores they have, the more they can sell.”
While he didn’t have specific information on Ross’ plans in SF, he said the new store speaks to the company’s belief that it can thrive downtown.
“It’s interesting to note that this is happening in San Francisco, where other stores are pulling out of the market,” he said. “It stands in stark contrast to the louder news of companies moving away from the area.”