Hear from two of our interns who worked at the Five Below Home Office this summer.
From David S. in the Merchandising Department:
This past summer I have had the privilege and opportunity to intern for one of the most successful up and coming retailers in the United States, Five Below. Five Below is a discounter retailer that has everything and anything you would ever need all for under $5. I was a buying intern for the fashion accessories, apparel and jewelry departments. I am a Retailing and Consumer Sciences major at the University of Arizona and because this company is growing rapidly I knew I would be able to get the best experience possible to see what buying and merchandising actually entails.
I had never heard of Five Below before until one afternoon at a student networking event at the NRF convention in the center of retail in the US, New York City. I was on a trip with other students from my major and was split up into groups with students from other schools. Each group sat at a table while a representative from each company there gave their five minute shpeel to each group to try and get us to apply for their summer internships. It had been a long first day at the convention and all of the pitches from all the companies started to sound the same until Kelly Ann from Five Below showed up at my table. Kelly Anne went on to explain what Five Below was and what they stood for and immediately I felt a passion for this store just purely based off her own. I figured if this woman is this excited about this company, this is where I want to be this summer.
Unfortunately, Kelly Ann and I feel out of touch because of busy schedules on both our parts and I found myself feeling the need to intern for this company without anyone’s number or email address. I suddenly remembered Kelly Ann saying that Five Below was on Twitter and I decided I was going to take my quest for attaining a Five Below internship onto the world wide web. On January 26 I tweeted, “@fivebelow how do I get in contact with someone about a summer internship. Met head of college relations at NRF convention.” I did this not expecting anything back and felt that I wanted my internship experience to be one of a kind and this was only fitting. On January I got a tweet back, ”finding out! Will be in touch!”. Me being the persistent person I am tweeted again on January 30, “@fivebelow can’t wait to get info about the internship. An email address would be great!” Finally on January 31 I got the tweet that made my entire semester saying, “check your inbox”.
From that point I interviewed 2 or 3 times and ended up landing the buying internship that will end up getting my foot door into the retail industry. I am lucky that because of Five Below is growing so rapidly it is very hard to hire at the same rate. Due to this I have been essentially doing assistant buying work as an intern. At first I was freaked out and was in way over my head. I was the buyers I was working under pick out certain designs and develop some original ones as well. I have presented a new item to one of our CEO’s that is hitting the stores in September while also been in constant contact with all of our vendors. I know for a fact that this experience is one that is no had anywhere else. I speak to my friends that have other buying internships at big department stores and their problem is staying busy, while mine is being able to take a breath, in a good way.
Another way Five Below stands out among their peers is they pride themselves of having the same assortment of items as a regular store but having the price of $5 or under. I have been learning and working alongside the best and brightest merchandising stars because they have to fight for every cent. Other stores really only worry about their assortment, while Five Below not only deal with both factors but excel in both fields.
I can confidently say that because of internship experience here at Five Below my opportunities are going to be much greater because that name is synonymous with hard work and a keen understanding of the retail industry. Interning there for 10 weeks helped me just scratch the surface of what they do. I got lessons in retail math, visual merchandising, communication, marketing and how to stay true to your customer. I would find it difficult if anyone had an experience that rivals mine because I worked on all of those subjects and more every day.
From Daniel A. – Marketing Department
The purpose of a co-op is to expand your education through real-world experiences in the workplace. When I began the co-op process, I was unsure which field I was interested in pursuing, so I applied for a lot of different positions with companies in retail, finance, entertainment and sports. After interviewing at Five Below and meeting the merchandising and marketing departments, I knew it would be the perfect place for me to work. The office environment was very communal and everyone tries to get to know you. Many departments work together on projects and rely on each other for their day-to-day responsibilities.
With Five Below, I was able to take the knowledge I had gained in the classroom and add to it through my daily responsibilities. In the marketing department, I was able to attend grand opening events, write radio spots to promote our new stores, help build our print flyers, and book supply vendors and team mascots for grand openings. I also helped update the company website with new product and information and assisted the marketing team at our product and model photo shoots for flyers and fashion look books. All of these experiences were incredibly beneficial because they introduced me to a wide variety of marketing.
