As one national retailer opens its doors in Auburn Plaza, another will close them.
Discount chain Five Below has announced via storefront signage that it will open in the Grant Avenue plaza at 10 a.m. Friday, March 24.
The Philadelphia-based chain sells fashion accessories, candy, books, decor, bath and body items, electronics and more. Like fellow discount store Dollar Tree, which is also located in Auburn Plaza, Five Below places a price cap — in its case, $5 — on all of its merchandise.
The chain has more than 500 U.S. locations, including four in the Syracuse area: Destiny USA, Erie Boulevard, Fairmount and Cicero. It will open the Auburn location simultaneously with seven others in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and South Carolina.
Five Below opens in the former space of Pet Depot, which along with other locations in the regional pet supply chain.
Meanwhile, the Auburn Plaza location of Radio Shack has announced that it will close.
The electronics chain closed  — 12 percent of its total of 1,500 — . The Auburn location appears to be part of a of 365 stores that Radio Shack will either close or convert into Sprint stores by March 31.
It is Radio Shack's second bankruptcy filing in two years.
"For a number of reasons, most notably the surprisingly poor performance of mobility sales, especially over recent months, we have concluded that the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward for the company," Radio Shack President and CEO Dene Rogers said in a news release.
After its first bankruptcy filing, the chain partnered with Sprint to create store-within-a-store presences at Radio Shack locations like Auburn. The telecommunications company has that several hundred of the closing Radio Shacks will become Sprint stores, but it's unclear whether that will be the fate of the Auburn location. All Sprint inventory was removed as of Monday, March 20.
The Auburn Radio Shack is advertising a clearance sale, but not a closing date.
An employee at the store and a representative of the chain's public relations firm, Joele Frank Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, declined to be interviewed for this story.
Lake Life Editor David Wilcox can be reached at (315) 282-2245 or david.wilcox@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter .