Teen Shoppers Ease Tariff Pain, Lifts Five Below Stock Threefold

Five Below Inc. has emerged as one of retail’s comeback stories this winter, cementing a turnaround based on targeting teens.

The discount retailer leaned into licensed products and capitalized on viral trends — from Dubai-style chocolate bars to Pop Mart International Group Inc.’s Labubus, creating their own “LaBabies” knockoff of the latter. That made it one of the best-performing stocks in the S&P Midcap index since it reached a five-year low in the aftermath of US President Donald Trump’s April 2024 announcement of Liberation Day tariffs.

The stock has more than tripled from their April 8 post-pandemic ...