The 5 & 10, 5 & dime, dime store or variety store was a 20th century institution in the Forty-Eight States, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. 5 & 10s originated in the late 19th century, with four major chains founded in Pennsylvania; F.W. Woolworth, J.G. McCrory, J.J. Newberry and G.C. Murphy.

5 & 10s, as a whole, survived the Great Depression unscathed. They went on to junior-anchor many early mall-type shopping centers. In fact, America's very first mall, Seattle's NORTHGATE CENTER, featured J.J. Newberry and F.W. Woolworth as charter tenants. The third shopping mall in the nation, Greater Los Angeles' LAKEWOOD CENTER, housed an F.W. Woolworth in its first stage.

By the mid-1960s, the trusty "5 & dime" was a standard feature of the American shopping mall. Often, there would be two stores -of different nameplates- within a single complex. Of course, in that day and age, a shopping mall was conceived and operated as a middle-market, everything in one place place. By the late '70s, the focus had shifted toward a preponderance of fashion and shoe store tenants. The trusty "mall" 5 & 10 began to disappear.

A few established mall 5 & 10 stores would survive into the late 1990s. However, by the turn of the 21th century, the typical mall-based dime store, and the 5 & 10 in general, had been relegated to misty, water-colored memory.