6 Stocks for Impatient Value Investors

ROSS STORES (ROST) is defying America's retail slump. Sales for all clothing and general merchandise stores rose just a fraction of one percent in June. Ross managed a 15% increase, or 8% at longstanding stores.

The Pleasanton, Calif.-based chain is likely benefitting from the ill fortune of posh retailers. Some of their customers, pinched by high gasoline prices and declining house and stock wealth, are newly keen on bargains. Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) has them, of course, but its brands wrinkle the noses of the stylish. Ross buys clothes with sought-after brands from merchants and manufacturers when the latter are caught with too much stock. It sells those clothes at considerable discounts through 863 namesake stores, most in suburban strip malls, and through a 54-store chain called dd's Discounts, launched in 2004. Most customers are women shopping for themselves and their families and who enjoy a "bargain hunt," the company says. Analysts say Ross has had a flood of industry overstock to choose from of late.

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