FIVE BELOW, INC (FIVE)

ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion together with “Selected Financial Data” and the consolidated financial statements and related notes included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended January 31, 2026 and referred to herein as the "Annual Report," and the consolidated financial statements and related notes as of and for the thirteen weeks ended May 2, 2026 included in Part I, Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. The statements in this discussion regarding expectations of our future performance, liquidity and capital resources and other non-historical statements are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described below in “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” and in Part II, Item 1A "Risk Factors." Our actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statements.

We operate on a fiscal calendar widely used by the retail industry that results in a given fiscal year consisting of a 52- or 53-week period ending on the Saturday closest to January 31 of the following year. References to "fiscal year 2026" or "fiscal 2026" refer to the period from February 1, 2026 to January 30, 2027, which is a 52-week fiscal year. References to "fiscal year 2025" or "fiscal 2025" refer to the period from February 2, 2025 to January 31, 2026 which is a 52-week fiscal year. The fiscal quarters ended May 2, 2026, and May 3, 2025 refer to the thirteen weeks ended as of those dates. Historical results are not necessarily indicative of the results to be expected for any future period and results for any interim period may not necessarily be indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to expectations, beliefs, projections, future plans and strategies, anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts or present facts or conditions, such as statements regarding our future financial condition or results of operations, our prospects and strategies for future growth, the introduction of new merchandise, and the implementation of our marketing and branding strategies. Forward-looking statements frequently are identified by terms such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.

The forward-looking statements contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q reflect our views as of the date of this report about future events and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and changes in circumstances that may cause events or our actual activities or results to differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future events, results, actions, levels of activity, performance or achievements. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, those factors described in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report, as amended by the risk factors included in Part II, Item 1A "Risk Factors" in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. These factors include without limitation:

•the impacts of inflation and increasing commodity prices;

•failure to successfully implement our growth strategy;

•disruptions in our ability to select, obtain, distribute and market merchandise profitably;

•reliance on merchandise manufactured outside of the United States;

18

•the direct and indirect impact of current and potential tariffs imposed, threatened and proposed by the United States on foreign imports, including, without limitation, the tariffs themselves, any counter-measures thereto and any indirect effects on consumer discretionary spending, which could increase the cost to us of certain products, lower our margins, increase our import related expenses, and reduce consumer spending for discretionary items, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of future operations;

•the impact of price increases, such as, a reduction in our unit sales, damage to our reputation with our customers, and our becoming less competitive in the marketplace;

•dependence on the volume of traffic to our stores and website;

•inability to successfully build, operate or expand our shipcenters or network capacity;

•disruptions to the global supply chain, increased cost of freight, constraints on shipping capacity to transport inventory or the timely receipt of inventory;

•extreme weather conditions in the areas in which our stores are located could negatively affect our business and results of operations;

•disruptions in our information technology systems and our inability to maintain and update those systems could adversely affect operations and our customers;

•systemic failure of the banking system in the United States or globally;

•the risks of cyberattacks or other cyber incidents, such as the failure to secure customers' confidential or credit card information, or other private data relating to our crew or our Company, including the costs associated with protection against or remediation of such incidents;

•increased usage of machine learning and other types of artificial intelligence in our business, and challenges with properly managing its use;

•increased operating costs or exposure to fraud or theft due to customer payment-related risks;

•inability to increase sales and improve the efficiencies, costs and effectiveness of our operations;

•dependence on our executive officers, senior management and other key personnel or inability to hire additional qualified personnel;

•inability to successfully manage our inventory balances and inventory shrinkage;

•inability to meet our lease obligations;

•the costs and risks of constructing and owning real property;

•changes in our competitive environment, including increased competition from other retailers and the presence of online retailers;

•the seasonality of our business;

•inability to successfully implement our expansion into online retail;

•natural disasters, adverse weather conditions, pandemic outbreaks, global political events, war, terrorism or civil unrest;

•the impact of changes in tax legislation;

•the impact to our financial performance related to insurance programs;

•inability to protect our brand name, trademarks and other intellectual property rights;

•the impact of product and food safety claims and effects of legislation; and

•restrictions imposed by our indebtedness on our current and future operations.

Readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All of the forward-looking statements we have included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q are based on information available to us on the date of this report. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

19

Overview

Five Below, Inc. (collectively referred to herein with its wholly owned subsidiaries as "we," "us," or "our") is a leading growth retailer offering trend-right, extreme value, high-quality products loved by the kid and the kid in all of us. We offer an edited assortment of products, with most priced at $5 and below, including select brands and licensed merchandise across our category worlds. As of May 2, 2026, we operated 1,970 stores in 46 states.

We offer our merchandise on the internet, through our fivebelow.com e-commerce website and mobile app, offering home delivery and the option to buy online and pick up in store. Additionally, we sell merchandise through on-demand third-party delivery services to enable our customers to shop online and receive convenient delivery. All e-commerce sales, which includes shipping and handling revenue, are included in net sales and are included in comparable sales. Our e-commerce expenses will have components classified as both cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative expenses (including depreciation and amortization).

On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling holding that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs, creating uncertainty regarding the potential recovery of tariffs previously assessed under that statute. In April, US Customs launched a system to allow importers of record to file IEEPA tariff refunds. The Company has filed claims to seek recovery of such tariffs; however, the availability, timing, and amount of any refunds remain uncertain and depend on further legal, regulatory, and administrative actions.

How We Assess the Performance of Our Business and Non-GAAP Measures

In assessing the performance of our business, we consider a variety of performance and financial measures. These key measures include net sales, comparable sales, cost of goods sold and gross profit, selling, general and administrative expenses (including depreciation and amortization) and operating income.

Net Sales

Net sales constitute gross sales net of merchandise returns for damaged or defective goods. Net sales consist of sales from comparable stores, non-comparable stores, and e-commerce, which includes shipping and handling revenue. Revenue from the sale of gift cards is deferred and not included in net sales until the gift cards are redeemed to purchase merchandise or as breakage revenue in proportion to the pattern of redemption of the gift cards by the customer.

Our business is seasonal and as a result, our net sales fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Net sales are usually highest in the fourth fiscal quarter due to the year-end holiday season.

Comparable Sales

Comparable sales include net sales from stores that have been open for at least 15 full months from their opening date, and e-commerce sales. Comparable stores include the following:

•Stores that have been remodeled while remaining open;

•Stores that have been relocated within the same trade area, to a location that is not significantly different in size, in which the new store opens at about the same time as the old store closes; and

•Stores that have expanded, but are not significantly different in size, within their current locations.

For stores that are relocated or expanded, the following periods are excluded when calculating comparable sales:

•The period beginning when the closing store receives its last merchandise delivery from one of our shipcenters through:

▪the last day of the fiscal year in which the store was relocated or expanded (for stores that increased significantly in size); or

▪the last day of the fiscal month in which the store re-opens (for all other stores); and

•The period beginning on the first anniversary of the date the store received its last merchandise delivery from one of our shipcenters through the period ending on the first anniversary of the date the store re-opened.

There may be variations in the way in which some of our competitors and other retailers calculate comparable or “same store” sales. As a result, data in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q regarding our comparable sales may not b

[Excerpt truncated for page length; source filing is linked above.]

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

You should read the following discussion together with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The statements in this discussion regarding expectations of our future performance, liquidity and capital resources and other non-historical statements are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risks and uncertainties described in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.” Our actual results may differ materially from those contained in or implied by any forward-looking statements.

We operate on a fiscal calendar widely used by the retail industry that results in a given fiscal year consisting of a 52- or 53-week period ending on the Saturday closest to January 31 of the following year. References to "fiscal year 2026" or "fiscal 2026" refer to the period from February 1, 2026 to January 30, 2027, which consists of a 52-week fiscal year. References to "fiscal year 2025" or "fiscal 2025" refer to the period from February 2, 2025 to January 31, 2026, which consists of a 52-week fiscal year. References to "fiscal year 2024" or "fiscal 2024" refer to the period from February 4, 2024 to February 1, 2025, which consists of a 52-week fiscal year. References to "fiscal year 2023" or "fiscal 2023" refer to the period from January 29, 2023 to February 3, 2024, which consists of a 53-week fiscal year.

Overview

Five Below, Inc. (collectively referred to herein with its wholly owned subsidiaries as "we," "us," or "our") is a rapidly growing specialty value retailer offering a broad range of trend-right, high-quality products loved by the kid and the kid in all of us. We offer a dynamic, edited assortment of exciting products, with most priced at $5 and below, including select brands and licensed merchandise across our category worlds. In fiscal 2019, we rolled out new pricing to our full chain, increasing prices on certain products over $5. Most of our products remain at $5 and below. As of January 31, 2026, we operated 1,921 stores in 46 states.

We also offer our merchandise on the internet, through our fivebelow.com e-commerce website and mobile app, offering home delivery and the option to buy online and pick up in store. Additionally, we sell merchandise through on-demand third-party delivery services to enable our customers to shop online and receive convenient delivery. All e-commerce sales, which includes shipping and handling revenue, are included in net sales and are included in comparable sales. Our e-commerce expenses will have components classified as both cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative expenses (including depreciation and amortization).

We believe that our business model has resulted in strong financial performance when considered in light of the economic environment. Our comparable sales increased by 12.8% in fiscal 2025, decreased by 2.7% in fiscal 2024, and increased by 2.8% in fiscal 2023. We expanded our store base from 1,544 stores at the end of fiscal 2023 to 1,921 stores at the end of fiscal 2025 and we plan to open approximately 150 net new stores in fiscal 2026. Between fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2025, our net sales increased from $3.6 billion to $4.8 billion, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 15.7%. Over the same period, our operating income increased from $385.6 million to $457.4 million, representing a compounded annual growth rate of 8.9%.

We expect to continue our strong growth in the future. By offering trend-right merchandise at differentiated price points, our stores have been successful in varying geographic regions, population densities and real estate settings. As of January 31, 2026, we operated stores in 46 states throughout the United States. We are primarily located in power, community and lifestyle shopping centers across a variety of urban, suburban and semi-rural markets with trade areas including at least 100,000 people in the specified market. We continue to believe we have the opportunity to expand our store base in the United States from 1,921 locations as of January 31, 2026 to more than 3,500 locations over time. Our ability to open profitable new stores depends on many factors, including our ability to identify suitable markets and sites; negotiate leases with acceptable terms; achieve brand awareness in the new markets; efficiently source and distribute additional merchandise; and achieve sufficient levels of cash flow and financing to support our expansion.

We have a proven and profitable store model that has produced consistent financial results and returns, and our new stores have achieved average payback period of approximately one year. Our new store model assumes a store size of approximately 9,500 square feet that achieves annual sales of approximately $2 million in the first full year of operation. Our new store model also assumes an average new store investment of approximately $0.4 million. Our new store investment includes our store build-out (net of tenant allowances), inventory (net of payables) and cash pre-opening expenses.

36

Our planned store expansion will place increased demands on our operational, managerial, administrative and other resources. Managing our growth effectively will require us to continue to maintain adequate distribution capacity, enhance our store management systems, financial and management controls, information systems and other operational system capabilities. In addition, we will be required to hire, train and retain store management and other qualified personnel. For further information, see Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors-Risk Relating to our Business and Industry.”

We have invested a significant amount of capital in infrastructure and systems necessary to support our future growth and we expect to incur additional capital expenditures to expand, upgrade, and develop our infrastructure and systems in future periods. In fiscal 2025, we continued to invest in our enterprise-wide human capital management system, which supports the management of our workforce and provides an integrated suite of tools for human resources, talent management, payroll, time tracking, benefits administration, and workforce planning. Our fiscal 2025 investments were primarily focused on enhancing payroll functionality and timekeeping capabilities as part of our ongoing efforts to modernize and streamline payroll and workforce management processes. In fiscal 2024, we invested in a new ERP, Oracle Fusion, which is designed to enhance functionality and provide timely information to our management team related to the operation of the business. In fiscal 2020, we launched our e-commerce website and invested in a new Retail Merchandising System, which is designed to manage, control, and perform seamless execution of day-to-day merchandising activities, including purchasing, distribution, order fulfillment, and financial close. In March 2021, we acquired land in Indianapolis, Indiana, to build an approximately 1,030,000 square foot shipcenter for approximately $60 million. In July 2020, we acquired land in Buckeye, Arizona, to build an approximately 860,000 square foot shipcenter for approximately $65 million, and currently occupy approximately 1,200,000 square feet after expanding in the second half of 2024. In August 2019, we acquired land in Conroe, Texas, to build an approximately 860,000 square foot shipcenter for approximately $56 million. In March 2019, we completed the purchase of an approximately 700,000 square foot shipcenter in Forsyth, Georgia for approximately $42 million, and currently occupy approximately 1,100,000 square feet after expanding in the first half of 2024. In fiscal 2016, we signed a 15-year lease for a new corporate headquarters location in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which currently expires in early 2033 and occupies approximately 230,000 square feet of office space. In fiscal 2015, we opened a shipcenter in Pedricktown, New Jersey and currently occupy approximately 1,000,000 square feet, having expanded from 800,000 square feet in September 2018.

We continuously assess ways to maximize the productivity and efficiency of our existing facilities, infrastructure and systems. The timing and amount of investments in our facilities, infrastructure and systems could affect the comparability of our results of operations in future periods. The completion date and ultimate cost of future projects could differ significantly from initial expectations due to construction-related or other reasons.

We believe our business strategy will continue to offer significant opportunities, but it also presents risks and challenges. These risks and challenges include, but are not limited to, that we may not be able to effectively identify and respond to changing trends and customer preferences, that we may not be able to find desirable locations for new stores and that we may not be able to effectively manage our future growth. In addition, our financial results can be expected to be directly impacted by substantial increases in product costs due to commodity cost increases or general inflation which could lead to a reduction in our sales as well as greater margin pressure as costs may not be able to be passed on to consumers. To date, changes in commodity prices and general inflation have not materially impacted our business. In response to increasing commodity prices or general inflation, we seek to minimize the impact of such events by sourcing our merchandise from different vendors and changing our product mix. See Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” for a description of these and other important factors that could adversely impact us and our results of operations.

How We Assess the Performance of Our Business and Non-GAAP Measures

In assessing the performance of our business, we consider a variety of performance and financial measures. These key measures include net sales, comparable sales, cost of goods sold and gross profit, selling, general and administrative expenses (including depreciation and amortization) and operating income.

Net Sales

Net sales constitute gross sales net of merchandise returns for damaged or defective goods. Net sales consist of sales from comparable stores, non-comparable stores, and e-commerce, which includes shipping and handling revenue. Revenue from the sale of gift cards is deferred and not included in net sales until the gift cards are redeemed to purchase merchandise or as breakage revenue in proportion to the pattern of redemption of the gift cards by the customer.

Our business is seasonal and as a result, our net sales fluctuate from quarter to quarter. Net sales are usually highest in the fourth fiscal quarter due to the year-end holiday season.

37

Comparable Sales

Comparable sales include net sales from stores that have been open for at least 15 full months from their opening date, and e-commerce sales. Comparable stores include the following:

•stores that have been remodeled while remaining open;

•stores that have been relocated within the same trade area, to a location that is not significantly different in size, in which the new store opens at about the same time as the old store closes; and

•stores that have expanded, but are not significantly different in size, within their current locations.

For stores that are relocated or expanded, the following periods are excluded when calculating comparable sales:

•the period beginning when the closing store receives its last merchandise delivery from one of our shipcenters through:

▪the last day of the fiscal year in which the store was relocated or expanded (for stores that increased significantly in size); or

▪the last day of the fiscal month in which the store re-opens (for all oth

[Excerpt truncated for page length; the complete text is on the linked full-MD&A page.]