Five Below Opens In Waterford Commons

Have five bucks? Waterford has a place for you (if Subway doesn’t get you first).

Five Below, a store where everything is $5 and under, opened Friday in the Waterford Commons. The store, which opened in half the space NAMCO used to occupy, features a variety of products, all for cheap.

“It is always exciting to open something new,” temporary store manager Laura Randolph said.

The Store

The stores sells a huge variety of products, from nail polish to sports apparel to DVDs. The biggest seller is $5 boogie boards in the summer, $5 yoga mats and iPhone covers, Randolph said. There also is an Easter section now for the upcoming holiday.

The store will employ 23 people, Randolph said. It is open every day from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., except Sunday, when it closes at 6 p.m.

For the grand opening, customers were given free shirts and hot dogs were sold for 5 cents a piece. Hot dogs will be sold for 5 cents today as well at lunchtime, Randolph said.

The next closest Five Below in Connecticut is in Manchester, which also opened Friday.

The store opened in half the space that NAMCO used to occupy. The other half of the space is being filled by Discount Shoe Warehouse, although so far no opening date has been announced for the women's shoe store.

The Bigger Picture

Five Below, which is based in Phildelphia, is rapidly expanding, according to a company press release. The company opened three stores Friday, and is planning to have more than 200 stores across the country by spring, according to the release.  

“Over the past two years, Five Below has experienced tremendous growth and nearly doubled in size. We are eager to open these three new locations and kick off what is going to be another momentous year for our company,” said Five Below Co-Founder and CEO, Tom Vellios, in a release. “This spring we are going to cross the 200-store threshold, and over the course of the year, we’ll open over 40 additional stores, including a dozen in two new markets.”