Westside bargain hunters lamented the closing of the Maple Village Dollar Tree in 2017. For the past couple of years, finding dollar-price-point merchandise has required a sojourn to the chain’s eastside store across from Arborland. That ended in August with the company’s return to Maple Village. More spacious and light-filled than the previous iteration, the new Dollar Tree also gains two walls of freezers with convenience foods, frozen fruit, ice cream and more–and, for the first time, restrooms.
In Dollar Tree’s absence, landlord Brixmor Properties brought in Five Below, a chain selling merchandise for up to five dollars. The competition, however, is not as direct as it might first appear. While Dollar Tree’s primary demographic is lower-income shoppers, Five Below targets children, preteens, and teens in a more fashion-conscious setting.
While each store sells personal care and beauty items, candy, greeting cards and gift bags and wrapping paper, clothing, electronics, and more, the amount of space and number of name- and off-brands differ. Dollar Tree’s small section of beauty items are mostly off-brand, while Five Below has a nearly full corner plus kiosks of makeup, bath products, nail polish, and beauty tools, more of them name brand. In addition to frozen foods, Dollar Tree offers a lane and a few kiosks of staples, snacks, and candy. Five Below carries snacks but no real food and its half-wall of refrigerated space holds only beverages.
Gift bags, wrapping paper, and greeting cards at Dollar Tree are the better bargain. While a small section of Dollar Tree had socks, flip-flops, and T-shirts on display, Five Below had an entire wall plus a kiosk of adult T-shirts, summer dresses, women’s shoes and sandals, and more. And while “99 Red Balloons” and songs of that ilk blare throughout Five Below, setting a party-like atmosphere for its (mostly) young shoppers, shoppers at Dollar Tree can contemplate their purchases in silence.
Dollar Tree, 325 N. Maple Rd. (Maple Village) (734) 887-2549. Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. dollartree.com/annarbor
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