After holiday shopping at Five Below, I was surprised by how many items cost more than $5

Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? . I went to Five Below for some last-minute holiday shopping. I was surprised to find that many items didn't live up to the store's name. But Five Below is still affordable and a good spot for cute trinkets. When you walk into Five Below , you expect things to be below $5. It's right there in the name. Still, that's not entirely true anymore. I stopped by Five Below, a discount chain with hundreds of stores across the US, for some late-in-the-game presents earlier this month, since I had very good luck visiting in 2023 with a budget of $50. Still, I was surprised to find that prices across the board seemed to have increased after a tough holiday season last year, a move Five Below has attributed to tariffs and higher sourcing costs. As The Street reported, tariffs have had a significant impact on Five Below's business , as 60% of its products are sourced from China. The brand said it was making "selective price adjustments" to combat this, as well as scaling back on items that weren't focused on the brand's core customer base of teens and tweens, like luggage. Even though there's been price increases, the move has positively affected its business. After sales were down 3%, according to an earnings call in March, the company's stock is up 85% year to date as of mid-December. Here's what it was like to visit Five Below this holiday season. Five Below did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. After a couple of years away, I returned to Five Below to do some holiday shopping. It's not my first time visiting Five Below during the holiday season . I went holiday shopping there in December 2023. I've also tried to save money on dupes at Five Below in March 2024, so you could call me something of a store expert. I went to a different location this time, so instead of descending into a basement, this store was on the second floor of a building. Many stores in New York City take up multiple floors because of limited real estate, like Party City , T.J. Maxx , and Marshalls. I was greeted with the same holiday "snacktivities," like $4 gingerbread houses. All of the Five Below locations I've visited have offered some form of these edible crafts or activities, such as gingerbread houses or hot chocolate bombs. But almost immediately, I noticed some of the stocking stuffers were slightly pricier than I remembered. I was genuinely surprised when some of the first things I saw were priced at $6 or $7, in addition to the classic $5-and-under stuff. There used to be a designated section for things priced above $5. That's not the case anymore. That section used to be called Five Beyond. I didn't even see one section like that in this store, since things that cost more than $5 were scattered throughout the store....

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