Five Below is an American-owned chain of discount stores where nothing in the store costs more than $5. The store mainly has items for children and preteens, but also caters to adults. The chain was founded in October 2002 by David Schlessinger and Tom Vellios.
Five Below ranked No. 17 on the Stores Hot 100 Retailers for 2017, posting 20 percent sales growth last year with worldwide sales of $1 billion.
Although the store gets compared to the Dollar Tree, it is decidedly different from that chain. The dollar stores mainly cater to needs. You can walk into the dollar store and get groceries.
At Five Below you get things you want, like cool iPhone gadgets and more. It prides itself on having a $5 budget because $5 gives access to everyone while $20 is only accessible to some.
As of May 2018, Five Below has more than 650 stores in 33 states, along with two distribution centers. It began its outward expansion away from the Philadelphia metro area by entering the Illinois and Michigan markets in 2011; Georgia, Kansas, Missouri and western Michigan in 2012; Texas in 2013; Tennessee in 2014; Alabama, Florida and Kentucky in 2015; Louisiana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin in 2016, and California in 2017. Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico & Utah will have theirs in 2018.
Tallahassee finally got its first this month. The soft opening of the store took place July 4-5 and at 9 a.m. Friday it had its grand opening.
The store is located on Governors Square Boulevard, and occupies a 6,413-square-foot space previously leased to Famous Footwear. This is the newest addition to the Governors Market Place which also has a Marshall's, Michael's, Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ulta, and Petco.
The grand opening featured a scratch off for a shopping spree. It also gave everybody in attendance $3 off a purchase of $5 or more coupon. Within the first 10 minutes of the grand opening almost 300 people entered the store.
Five Below store features a wide range of items from your favorite candy to sport items, games, fashion accessories, bath and body related items, and room decorations.