Popular discount retailer Five Below bases its sales premise on offering products under $5.
But whether it is inflationary pressure or customer demand, or maybe both, the retailer is planning to roll out a new “Five Beyond” store-in-a-store concept at one-third of its stores which will allow them to charge higher prices.
Five Below has locations in Harlingen, Brownsville, Edinburg and Pharr among its more than 1,000 stores nationwide, with 115 of them in Texas.
The plan was delivered by CEO Joel Anderson last week, who said the store-within-a-store concept was deployed in 140 stores last year and will be expanded to 170 or 180 more this year. No individual stores were revealed.
Five Below executives want more flexibility on pricing, which would allow it to add slightly more expensive items such as electronics components which can’t be had for under $5.
“The emergence of Five Beyond from our Ten Below tests is a great example how we pivoted to play offense,” Anderson said. “The customer has responded positively to our new Five Beyond assortment …”
Five Below had a strong fourth quarter, posting a sales increase of 25 percent year-over-year. The pandemic did bring the retailer down for the full year, with comp sales off 5.5 percent and operating income down 29 percent.
