BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Five Below, a discount store where products sell for $5 and cheaper, is opening three new stores in Maryland targeted at youth ages 10 and up, a consumer group that spent more than $160 billion last year.

“My partner Tom Vellios calls [Five Below] the allowance store,” said David Schlessinger, former owner of Zany Brainy and Encore Books and now executive chairman of Five Below.

“It’s a place where kids can go shopping and spend their own money. Our target audience is preteens and teens, and our merchandise reflects their interests at prices they can afford,” Schlessinger said.

Schlessinger says his store concept helps kids on a budget buy popular items within their limits.

“Five Below empowers kids to make their own decisions and exercise their individual expression by choosing what they want. It’s the next progression up from Zany Brainy,” Schlessinger said. “The stores are large, 7,000 to 9,000 square feet, loaded with great brands at deep discounts like Bally, Spaulding, Adidas, Hello Kitty and the ‘Family Guy’ — high-quality, licensed merchandise you won’t find at the dollar store.”

The grand openings are scheduled with kids in mind, too.

“Our store openings are always at 3 p.m. because our target audience gets out of school at that time,” Vellios said in a statement.

The next generation of shoppers have retailers scrambling to get their dollars.

“These kids have money to spend — birthday money, baby-sitting money and allowances — and they want to spend it,” said Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. “Retailers are very interested in this group, but they need to consider [children’s] love of technology, electronics, and new and different merchandise when determining what to sell and how to display it.

“Just look at the success of the dollar stores,” she said. “They are doing very well largely because there is a mindset that everything in the store is a deal and it’s not going to last. Stores that focus on a certain pricing point attract more of a bargain-hunter mentality because [customers] know walking through the door what to expect, and there are no surprises.”

Five Below operates 56 stores in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with plans to expand to 100 by the end of 2008, with more on tap for Maryland.

More information

A grand opening is planned today at 3 p.m. in all three locations

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rchappelle@baltimoreexaminer.com