[EXCLUSIVE] Liquidation Retailer Gimme A $5 Opening First Georgia Store

Gimme A $5, a growing chain of discount stores which bills itself  as "The Original $5 Treasure Hunt," is entering the Georgia market.  The new store, to be located at Dalton Mall in Dalton, is expected to open in the coming weeks.  The new Gimme A $5 opens in place of a space that was originally home to anchor Loveman's, later Proffitt's, and finally Belk. Belk, which already had a store in the mall, operated both stores for a time, but later consolidated to their original space, making this one available.

Bins of merchandise inside a Gimme A $5 store 

Nashville-based Gimme A $5 has eight locations in Tennessee with a ninth coming soon.  There is also a single location open in Louisville, Kentucky.

The owners of Gimme a $5 got their start buying excess inventory from retailers like Target and Walmart and selling it online.  As fees and shipping expenses increased, the owners opted to open a brick & mortar store to better control expenses.  "Deal Depot" debuted  in Lebanon, Tennessee in 2013.  At that time, store employees would individually sort and price merchandise to be sold.  The store was constantly getting new merchandise and the sorting became too time consuming and expensive, so Gimme A $5 was born.

Rather than individually sort and price merchandise, all products receive flat pricing that gradually decreases as the week goes on.  As the name suggests, items start at $5 on Saturday and Sunday, known as "restock days."  As the week goes on, prices on merchandise decrease to $3 on Monday, $2 on Tuesday, and $1 Wednesday & Thursday, before dropping to a mere 25 cents on Friday.  The process starts all over with new merchandise the following week.

The fact that the merchandise is not sorted and priced according to value leads to opportunities to score tremendous deals.  Although rare, customers have scored AirPods,a Mont Blanc pen, a Rheem water heater, Xbox consoles, drones, tablets and other high end items for only a few bucks.  

The popularity of Gimme A $5 has spawned at least two similar retail concepts: Bintime, in Taylors, South Carolina, (a suburb of Greenville), and Crazy Cazboy's in Homewood, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham.

Crazy Cazboy's, which opened this past May, is owned by John Cassimus whose parents Marcus and Zoe started the Zoës Kitchen restaurant chain.  John, who later grew the chain to several hundred locations and eventually started other restaurant concepts Maki Fresh, Jinsei and Miss Dots, sold all of his restaurant holdings in 2018 to enter the liquidation retail business.

Cassimus first opened a Mike'e Merchandise franchise, a store similar to Bargain Hunt, in Pelham, Alabama in 2018.  Cassimus launched Crazy Cazboy's having discovered the efficiency and appeal of the Gimme A $5 model.

Gimme A $5, Bintime, Crazy Cazboy's and others not only buy merchandise from mass merchant retailers but also from online retailers like Amazon.  

The stores are turning what was once a cottage industry - individuals and small businesses buying pallets of returned and overstock merchandise to divvy up and resell - into a new retail segment.  

Dalton Mall, originally known as Walnut Square Mall, is in the midst of an evolution.  Augusta, Georgia-based Hull Property Group purchased the mall from Chattanooga-based CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. in late 2016.  The mall lost both Sears and Joann Fabrics in 2017. 

Given the traffic that Gimme A $5 stores generate - people line up hours in advance on "restock days" - it's no wonder that Hull is turning to them to not only occupy large spaces but also to act as an anchor to drive traffic to the mall.

Hull last summer leased a former Goody's store in Columbia Mall (originally known as Shadybrook Mall) in Columbia, Tennessee, to the discount retailer.  Given the size of the space, Gimme A $5 actually opened three stores at the mall: Gimme A $5, Gimme A $5 Clothing, and Half Priced Foods.

Gimme A $5 Clothing follows its namesake, offering jewelry, accessories, clothing, bedding, shoes and pet items for $5 and less.  At Half Priced Foods, customers can take advantage of name brand coffee, health items, baby formula, pet food and more for half off the retail price.

Although Hull Property Group and Gimme A $5 never responded to ToNeTo Atlanta's multiple requests for comment, it's believed that the new store at Dalton Mall will feature all three of the aforementioned stores.  Additionally, given the bare bones of a typical Gimme A $5 store, an October opening is likely not out of the question.  

Have you ever been to a Gimme A $5?  If you have been, what the best thing you found?  Where would you like to see Gimme A $5 open next?

Please share your thoughts below