Value retail is where the volume lives. Five Below and Dollar General are two of the fastest-growing store counts in the country, and both are open to new suppliers in a way that many premium chains are not. The catch is that everything starts from the price on the shelf. Learning how to sell to Five Below or Dollar General means learning to design a product backwards from a fixed retail price to a landed cost that still leaves you money, and then proving you can ship thousands of units without a hiccup.
This guide covers how the two chains differ, how price-point buying works, which categories fit, the logistics and compliance side, and how to reach a buyer.
Two very different value retailers
Five Below is built around fun. Its customer skews toward teens, tweens and their parents, and the store is organized around trend, novelty, candy, tech accessories, room decor, games, beauty, sports and seasonal. Most of the store sells at or below a five-dollar price point, with a section of higher-priced items above that. Buying is run from its Philadelphia headquarters, and the assortment moves fast: what is hot this quarter may be gone next quarter.
Dollar General is built around convenience and everyday needs, with a very large footprint of small stores in rural areas and small towns where it is often the closest place to buy anything. Consumables (food, household, health and beauty) are the core, with seasonal, home and apparel around them. Its buying office is in Tennessee, and it runs a disciplined, compliance-heavy supply chain because thousands of small stores have to be replenished efficiently.
Same "value" label, but the Five Below buyer wants the next fun thing at an impulse price; the Dollar General buyer wants a reliable everyday item that turns every week in a small store.
Price-point-first buying
At most retailers you pitch a product and negotiate a price. In value retail, the price is fixed before the product exists. The buyer starts from a shelf price, subtracts the margin the chain needs, and lands on a cost target. Your job is to hit that cost with a product that still looks good on the shelf.
That usually means cost engineering: a smaller size, a simpler pack, a two-pack instead of a three-pack, a different material, a change of supplier, or a version made specifically for this channel. The first question to answer honestly is what your landed cost really is. Landed cost explained shows how to calculate it including freight, duties and packaging, because at a five-dollar retail every dime matters.
Run the math with the wholesale margin calculator before you approach anyone. If your product cannot be made to hit the cost target without ruining it, this is not your channel, and that is fine.
Categories that fit
Five Below: tech and phone accessories, room decor, candy and snacks, beauty and bath, games and toys, sports and fitness accessories, stationery, seasonal, pet accessories, licensed and trend items.
Dollar General: packaged food and snacks, beverages, household cleaning, paper goods, health and beauty, over-the-counter items, pet food and supplies, basic home and kitchen, seasonal decor, socks and basics.
If you sell on Amazon, look at your category and ask whether a version of your product could sell at a value price point without embarrassing the brand. Many brands create a separate value line or a different pack for this channel so the main brand keeps its price integrity elsewhere.
Pack sizes, logistics and compliance
Both chains buy in case packs designed for fast shelf replenishment, and both ship through distribution centers rather than direct to store. Expect strict routing guides, labeling and pallet requirements, EDI, and chargebacks when a shipment misses the spec. Dollar General in particular is known for a rigorous compliance program because its store network depends on it. Retail compliance and chargebacks walks through what those requirements look like in practice and how they eat margin if you are not ready.
Inner packs of 6, 12 or 24 are common. Packaging has to be shelf-ready and self-explanatory, because store staff are few and shoppers decide in seconds. Where your product sits on the shelf is decided centrally; planograms explained covers how that works.
Seasonality
Both chains run heavy seasonal programs: back-to-school, Halloween, the winter holidays, Valentine's, Easter, spring and summer outdoor. Seasonal buys are typically reviewed the better part of a year in advance, especially for imported goods. Five Below also buys "in-season" on trend items that can ship quickly, which is one of the few places a fast-moving small brand can win a mid-year order. Everyday items at Dollar General are reviewed on a category schedule; ask the buyer when yours is.
How to reach the buyer
- Start with the retailer's supplier page and submit through the listed process. Both chains publicly invite new suppliers, and the page has current specifics on what they need.
- Find the category buyer. Value retailers organize buying by category, and the only person who can say yes is the one who owns your aisle.
- Lead with the price point. A value buyer wants to know, in the first two lines, what it retails for, what it costs them, and how many you can ship. Then the product.
- Bring proof of velocity: Amazon sales rank, reviews, sell-through at another retailer, anything that shows it turns.
- Consider a broker or manufacturers' rep who already sells into value retail. The category managers know them, and an introduction shortens the timeline. How to sell to big-box retailers covers when a rep is worth the commission.
What to send
A one-page sell sheet with the retail price, cost, case pack, dimensions, UPC, country of origin, lead time and monthly capacity. Product photos in final packaging. For food and beauty, the ingredient and compliance documentation. For anything for kids, safety testing. Keep it to one page; a value buyer sees hundreds of these.
Common mistakes
- Pitching a premium product and hoping the buyer will accept a higher price point. They will not.
- Not knowing your true landed cost, then discovering the deal loses money after the first chargeback.
- Underestimating the volume. A rollout across thousands of stores is a serious production commitment; be honest about capacity.
- Ignoring compliance. The routing guide is not optional, and the penalties are real.
- Assuming the two chains are interchangeable. Different customer, different categories, different buyer.
A short worked example
Say you sell a phone stand on Amazon at 14 dollars with a landed cost of 3.50 dollars. Five Below wants it at a five-dollar retail. Working backwards, the cost target is roughly 2.25 to 2.50 dollars per unit. You cannot get there with the current product, so you make a smaller version in one color with a simpler pack, and your factory quotes 1.90 dollars landed at volume. You sell it at 2.40 dollars and keep 50 cents a unit. That sounds tiny until you look at the order: 12 units in 1,000 stores is 12,000 units and 6,000 dollars of gross profit on the first buy, with reorders if it turns. Value retail is a volume game, and the math only works when you go in with your eyes open.
Finding the right category buyer at a value chain, and the regional discount and dollar-store chains that buy the same way, is the slow part. WholesalePilot does that step: paste your product link and it finds the value retail buyers who fit, verifies their emails, and sends the outreach in your name.
In value retail the price is decided before the product. Design backwards from the shelf.
Paste your product link and see which value retail buyers fit it, free.