Five Below is opening 15 stores. We already had 14 of them

Every so often we grade ourselves. A brand publishes where it's going next, and before those stores show up in our data, we type each city into Brandmarch and see whether the center they signed was already at the top of our list. It's how we check the recommendation engine — and how we find the places it needs to get better.

This time it was Five Below: fifteen signed-but-unopened stores, from Spokane to Miami. Ten minutes to run all fifteen.

6 of 15: the center they signed was our #1 recommendation for that city.

14 of 15: inside our top ten. Twelve of them in the top five.

1 miss: Jacksonville, where their center came in at #80. It's in the table, and it's the one we're studying.

All 15 centers are named in the carousel, with our rank next to each. Check our work.

Now think about the old way to get that same list. Fifteen cities is fifteen phone calls to fifteen brokers, each of whom knows their market and none of whom knows the other fourteen. That's a week, if everyone calls back.

This doesn't replace the broker. You still need the person who knows the landlord, the deal history, the space that's about to come open. What it does is start the conversation with the list already ranked — so the call is about the top three, not about where to begin.

Pick a brand and see where they belong: brandmarch.com

No. 02 in our Brand Expansion Series. No. 01 called Wonder's McKinney site before they announced it.