Take any mall in America, hang a left at its food court and you'll find yourself staring at those big, bold letters in the loudest shade of pink imaginable: Deb.

Founded in the 1930s by Phillip Rounick and Aaron Weiner as a lingerie and stocking company, the company found early success with the name Joy Hosiery on the streets of Philadelphia. Over the years, its product offering expanded to include sportswear.

The clothier really hit its stride in the 1970s when Marvin Rounick and Warren Weiner -- kin to the founders -- gave its drab and dreary identity an extreme makeover. Its product offering was built out yet again, and Joy Hosiery became the decidedly-more-youthful Deb.

After enjoying steady growth throughout the 80s -- the period where Deb became as synonymous with the shopping-mall experience as the awkward walk from your parents' car to the entrance -- the company found its greatest success in 1992, when it operated over 370 locations and reported its highest-ever sales numbers: 229.5 million.

The popular purveyor of tween impulse buys traded publicly on the NASDAQ for 24 years, but a 2007 all-cash acquisition by Lee Equity Partners took the company private.

Today, Deb is still pimping brightly-colored tank tops, cheap-chic jewelry and trendy shoes to dedicated Hannah Montana fans at over 340 locations and via a robust online store.

In today’s retail environment, seasonality is a major theme, and the chain sees its heaviest volume during the back-to -school season. "Jeans and sweaters get scooped up by mothers and daughters at a breakneck pace," says a former employee.

Unlike Aeropostale (ARO), Hollister or Gap (GPS), Deb shills its product line at more reasonable price -- perfect for the part-time Macy’s cashier looking for a sweet deal on neon bracelets, shoes ($10), capris ($15), select jeans (50% off), and swimwear (40% off).

And yet the store's most popular items, according to the same Deb defector, are its smaller
trinkets and accessories. Think picture frames, candy, themed underwear and socks, perfume, license-plate covers, and small toys. And, for Pete's sake, try to contain your obvious excitement.

Today's thoroughly modern Deb caters to women of all shapes and sizes. While most of its shops target juniors, the last 15 years have seen the conversion of a number of locations into Deb Plus stores.

And for the dudes, a number of Deb locations share space with brother retailer Tops 'N Bottoms, which specializes in pants made to be worn just below the buttocks by designers such as Sean John, South Pole and Enyce.

In ways both big and small, Deb is an early forerunner of more recent retail phenoms like H&M and Forever 21, which offer high-fashion wares and rock-bottom prices. Its formula -- low-cost trendiness -- has served it well since its reinvention in the 1970s.