ROST

Ross Stores, Inc.

An off-price retailer, Ross Stores runs two brands that sell brand-name apparel and home fashions at big discounts. Ross Dress for Less targets middle-income shoppers, while dd's DISCOUNTS serves lower-to-moderate-income customers, both offering a "treasure hunt" of close-out finds. The company began in 1950 when Morris "Morrie" Ross opened a small department store in San Bruno, California, named after himself; in 1982 a group of investors bought those six stores and reinvented them as the off-price chain known today.