Five Below

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Five Below

Post by storewanderer »

Five Below has entered my area first with a store in Sparks. I guess it opened a month ago. I went in. The shelves were less than 50% stocked and what was stocked, was not well stocked. Price points do not seem particularly attractive. In talking to the employees, I was told the store was fully stocked for opening but due to the major crowds, they have not been able to keep up with replenishment.

I have been to Five Below out of state and this place didn't have 25% of the mix I remember seeing. It also seemed smaller and had lower shelves. Also they had like 7 self checkouts (no cash) and 1 regular cashier (if you want to use cash).
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Re: Five Below

Post by Alpha8472 »

How does Five Below compare to Dollar Tree or the 99 Cent Only store?
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Re: Five Below

Post by storewanderer »

Less merchandise, higher prices, cleaner store. Reminds me of a limited assortment Dollar General or Family Dollar. I'd rather go to Dollar General or Family Dollar who get the same items plus a whole lot more into a similar space, with better or similar pricing. But Five Below "looks" and "feels" fun and hip. Five Below seems to be going after the types of customers who like brag to everyone that they shop Target (superficial) and also enjoy bragging they wouldn't be seen in a Wal Mart as it is so "beneath them." Dollar General and Family Dollar- zero ambience.
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Re: Five Below

Post by buckguy »

Five Below goes into locations that normally wouldn't rent to a dollar store, like power centers and even "lifestyle" centers. At one time, they apparently targeted "tweens" but the couple stores I've seen seem much broader in their appeal than that. The stores have seemed cleaner and better laid out than the typical dollar store.
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Re: Five Below

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: September 26th, 2021, 12:30 pm Five Below goes into locations that normally wouldn't rent to a dollar store, like power centers and even "lifestyle" centers. At one time, they apparently targeted "tweens" but the couple stores I've seen seem much broader in their appeal than that. The stores have seemed cleaner and better laid out than the typical dollar store.
Definitely cleaner and better laid out. More labor (just standing around most of the time) also.
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Re: Five Below

Post by mjhale »

Five Below was founded by David Schlessinger who started Encore Books in the Philly area and Zany Brainy which was a children's educational toy and book store. It makes sense that the Five Below stores have a more upscale, fun environment as opposed to a regular dollar store. If you ever shopped at Zany Brainy the "fun" element of shopping there is present in Five Below.
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Re: Five Below

Post by Brian Lutz »

There used to be a Zainy Brainy store in Redmond Town Center, which operated from around 1997-2001 or so (although my recollection may be a bit vague.) It was one of several stores from that era which I would put into the "Edutainment" category (basically a museum gift shop in a mall, this was back in the era when Discovery Channel had retail stores). although they seemed to go for a more colorful appearance than a lot of them. I recall that when the store here opened they got Bill Nye (then at or near the height of his popularity) to make an appearance and sign autographs. Unsurprisingly, it disappeared at around the same time most of the other stores in that category began to disappear.
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Re: Five Below

Post by Alpha8472 »

There was The Nature Company and The Discovery Channel store at that time. Those stores were very fun to visit, but very expensive.
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Re: Five Below

Post by cjd »

We're getting one of these here too along with a Burlington Coat Factory, which are replacing a former Gold's Gym and Books-A-Million. The spaces seem quite large for these stores, although I have never been to either before so I can't say what size of a store Five Below usually is. Seems to be a sort of variety store for young people.
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Re: Five Below

Post by Romr123 »

Was just driving through Fostoria, OH (30 miles outside Toledo) and was surprised to see a standalone Mazda dealer---looked up and it was apparently a Lincoln-Mercury-Mazda combination that lost Mercury and gave up Lincoln.
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