Ross Dress for Less Expands Into New York With New Long Island Stores and 2026 Growth Plans

Ross Dress for Less has been moving fast on New York. The off-price retailer opened two new Long Island stores on March 7, planting flags in Lake Grove at 3210 Middle Country Road and Riverhead at 1080 Old Country Road. Both are already running extended hours: Monday through Thursday 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday until midnight, and Sunday 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The Long Island openings are part of a 17-store national wave Ross launched across 11 states between February and March, comprising 13 Ross Dress for Less locations and four dd's DISCOUNTS stores. Richard Lietz, the company's executive vice president of property development, called the rollout the first wave of a plan to add approximately 110 new stores in 2026, roughly 85 Ross locations and 25 dd's DISCOUNTS, amounting to 5% total unit growth for the year.

New York's appetite for the brand has been building quickly. Ross opened its first Long Island store in Hempstead to long lines and packed parking lots, followed by a Farmingville location whose October grand opening drew a DJ, ribbon-cutting ceremony, and steady crowds all day. The March 7 openings in Lake Grove and Riverhead effectively doubled the chain's Long Island presence in a single weekend.

A third New York outpost is taking shape in the Rochester area. A "coming soon" sign is posted at Irondequoit Plaza, 525 Titus Ave., where Ross is renovating a 27,000-square-foot former Big Lots space that has sat vacant since late 2024. Construction is expected to wrap up by June, though no official opening date has been announced. When it opens, the Irondequoit location will be Ross's third in the Rochester market, following stores that opened in Gates in 2023 and near Victor in 2024.

The draw is straightforward: Ross offers name-brand clothing, footwear, and home goods at 20% to 60% below typical department store prices. The no-frills, treasure-hunt format, where inventory rotates constantly, has proven particularly sticky with cost-conscious shoppers as price sensitivity across discretionary categories holds firm.

The national footprint reflects the scale of that demand. As of mid-March, Ross operated 1,917 locations across 44 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico, alongside 366 dd's DISCOUNTS stores in 23 states. The company opened 90 new locations in 2025 alone. Lietz put the long-term ambition plainly: "We remain confident in our long-term growth potential and see a clear path to 2,900 Ross locations and 700 dd's DISCOUNTS stores across the country."

For the February-March wave, dd's DISCOUNTS added stores in its core California and Texas markets plus its inaugural Utah location. Ross expanded its namesake banner across the Mountain, Midwest, and Northeast regions while reinforcing its Sunbelt presence. At each opening, the company made a donation to a local Boys & Girls Club or First Book literacy partner. Whether the Irondequoit store follows that same playbook this summer depends entirely on whether the construction timeline holds.