At America's Fastest-Growing Teen Chain, Everything's Under $5

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Tom Vellios, the co-founder and CEO of the Five Below franchise, knows what the teens want: A store full of unnecessary, super trendy goods that are all priced below $5. Buzzfeed reports that the retailer is America's fastest growing teen chain, and has plans to implement thousands of new locations across the US in the next twenty years.

According to Buzzfeed, the chain resembles a cross between Spencer's Gifts and Claire's, so think lots of teen-geared knick-knacks, accessories, and candy. But for being a teen retailer, Five Below has taken a surprising approach to the internet. The Five Below website is merely an advertising tool for the in-store experience—there's currently no webshop available. Instead, Vellios focuses on stocking the stores with whatever trend the teens are currently raging about, and it's an approach that's been working well so far. "Our goal is not to be first to identify a trend—we have the ability to be a very fast second," Vellios told Buzzfeed. "We take discretionary product and through our editing process, with the right quality and right trend and color, enable our customer to really want to come into our stores. It's the trend-right approach."
· Meet Five Below, America's Fastest-Growing Teen Retailer [Buzzfeed]
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· Dick's CEO Apologizes to Teen Girl Over Lack of Women in Catalog [Racked]