Hot topic strategy

[mrs~chi~vious]

you two do realize that Hot Topic and Torrid are owned by the same company, right?

oh, and every time i see a damn Hot Topic, its next to a Claire's... Heaven and Hell? lmao question is.. which is which?

oh, and as far as Tripp pants.... i can't but the girl style.. apparently you have to be a size 6 or smaller.... so i stick to the mens.. i like the style's better...

SOOOOOO expensive....

Sadly? Yes, I realize that the owners of HT and Torrid are <shivers inwardly> The Gap.

It really shouldn't surprise us too much that they sold their souls to the corporate establishment, and now suck because of it!

The above is me raging against the man!

[anametamystik]

I've never shopped at either HT or Torrid, but I think I will make a point of at least seeing in person what all the fuss is about sometime this month.

I can't believe I at one time wanted to work at HT.

[TygerLili]

You shouldn't be wearing head to toe anything unless you want people to think you have no sense of fashion. I don't mean no fashion sense as in someone who wears plaid with polka dots with sneakers with a diamond tiara, but no fashion sense as in no artistic ability to put outfits together. Even when I see celebrities in head to toe Prada or Dolce and Gabana or whatever, right down to the shoes, I think "How boring and, well, easy."

I don't like "easy" fashion. I like to put outfits together. People will come up to me at a club, compliment my outfit, and ask where I got it. I respond with something like "Well...I got my blouse at JC Penney and ripped the lining out of it to make it sheer, and I got my corset at arsenicfashions.com, and I got my skirt at Noir Leather, and I got my stockings at Nordstroms, and I got my boots at Walmart, and I got my necklace at Forever 21, and my earings are my grandmother's antique jewelry." Translation: you can't walk into a store and buy one of my outfits. *Please note the I can't sew anything more complicated than a button back on a shirt.*

As for Hot Topic, I really don't see them as any different than any other place in the mall, except that you don't have to dye over your blue hair and take out your nose and lip rings to work there. A few people seem to go in there thinking they can come out ready-made-goth, a few hate them to the point of boycotting and calling them sellouts, and the rest of us go in, look, and think eh, there's nothing here I really want.

I would never buy anything there that wasn't very basic, like a fishnet shirt, or on clearance, because as has been mentioned several times, the quality isn't worth the retail price on most of their stuff. I own one dress from them that I bought a few years ago off the clearance rack. My boyfriend likes it because it's a french maid dress and thinks it's sexy. It's one of my least favorite outfits because I can't do a whole lot to dress it up. I tried putting an underbust corset over it, and had to rip it off in the car on the way to the club because the cheap plastic boning in the dress was bending and poking me in the ribcage. The sleeves are too poufy to put a jacket ot top over it, etc. All I can really work with is jewelry and hosiery. I bought a pair of platform sandals there about a year and a half ago that broke like the third time I wore them. Oh, and my friend bought me a pleather bondage skirt there that I wore once and decided the style wasn't for me at all. Those are the only things I've ever owned from Hot Topic. Nothing else they carry has really appealed to me, or if it has, I refused to pay $50-70 for something that, quality-wise, is worth about $25.

I personally think that they try to appeal to too many groups at once, between the CDs, the clothing, the accessories, the toys, the decor. It's too small of a store to try to carry that much stuff at once. If they're going to market that wide of a range they should just expand to something more like a department store. A "goth" Kohl's of sorts. Perhaps then they could devote more space to each genre and contract with better quality suppliers.

[headlessgoth]

if hot topic would go back to being goth topic instead of old navy for emos they would get my business again

[Hellion]

Hot Topic might as well be called Emo Topic,IMO,they went to shit a long time ago,they were good in the 90's,until 2003.your better off making your own stuff.That place needs to fold just like ENRON,IMO.

[Destroit]

if hot topic would go back to being goth topic instead of old navy for emos they would get my business again

Good answer: +1

Hot Topic might as well be called Emo Topic,IMO,they went to shit a long time ago,they were good in the 90's,until 2003.your better off making your own stuff.That place needs to fold just like ENRON,IMO.

That is also correct: +1

Another acceptable answer would have been: They aren't fooling goth people by selling black nail polish next to khakis.

HT gets Cher's Emo-Stamp-of-PLZ-go-out-of-EMO-Business-already-k-thnx.

Fuck a bunch of HT.

[n0Mad]

I lost all respect for Hot Topic when they started carrying hoodies.

[Destroit]

you two do realize that Hot Topic and Torrid are owned by the same company, right?

oh, and every time i see a damn Hot Topic, its next to a Claire's... Heaven and Hell? lmao question is.. which is which?

oh, and as far as Tripp pants.... i can't but the girl style.. apparently you have to be a size 6 or smaller.... so i stick to the mens.. i like the style's better...

SOOOOOO expensive....

...You...do realize that HT is owned by the same people that own Claire's, right?

BASICALLY...HT is owned and has always been owned by a more familiar face: Old Navy.

I shit you not. So there...mystery solved.

[Hellion]

I think the Gap owns them,also remember when Gadzooks was cool they had better stuff for goths and lady goths

now they are a tween teen store for little brats now.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

...You...do realize that HT is owned by the same people that own Claire's, right?

BASICALLY...HT is owned and has always been owned by a more familiar face: Old Navy.

I shit you not. So there...mystery solved.

i knew that they were under the same company as Claire's (every time both are in the same store, they are usually side by side... a heaven and hell type thing.. question these days is which one is which...)

and old navey?

that explains EVERYTHING! OMG!

[Draco1958]

With the discussion of who owns Hot Topic, I thought I would check it out. Turns out HT owns itself and Torrid. The Gap owns itself, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime, an online store. I went to The Gap's website and clicked on shop Gap brands. HT is not listed as one. And on the main HT investors page, it talks about when HT started and formed Torrid in 2001 and nothing about being owned or partnered with any other clothing business.

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

just when we had it all figured out..

HT has no one to blame for its lameness... i think that's worse than being controlled by some corporations marketing strategy...

great...

i will stick to buying "HT" brands from other stores, online. better quality, better selection.

Torrid has gone to shit, too, BTW...

just thought I'd throw that out there...

[n0Mad]

Hot Topic is traded publicly on NASDAQ (HOTT). If we all pooled our money and bought enough shares, then DGN could own Hot Topic and we'd be in charge.

[Morbid Side]

HT is a major marketing machine. Always have, always will be. Everytime I walk in there, I cringe at the thought of buying anything much less stepping foot in or giving them my business. What they should do if they want to appeal to mainstream audiences is scrap the idea of the store. Take the old with the new except this time maybe they could make a seperate store to sell the junk they have now and revive the old gothic clothing and keep two different stores. It would be similiar to how there is Toys R Us and Kids R Us.

[Destroit]

just when we had it all figured out..

HT has no one to blame for its lameness... i think that's worse than being controlled by some corporations marketing strategy...

great...

i will stick to buying "HT" brands from other stores, online. better quality, better selection.

Torrid has gone to shit, too, BTW...

just thought I'd throw that out there...

Refresh me...what is Torrid again and would I buy anything they sell?

[Destroit]

It would be similiar to how there is Toys R Us and Kids R Us.

That wouldn't be a bad idea.

Toys R Us = goth

Kids R Us = Emo...'cause emo implies "kid" in my book.

It all makes sense now

[know_buddy_kares]

they're loosing money because by going to the emo trend they're now directly competing with thrift/salvation army/goodwill stores... which sorry... you can't beat their prices for emo clothes. Exact same crap, but one hell of a different price.

[EnViOuSPoPpEt]

I alter EVERYTHING I buy ..

I like things they have at hot topic, but rarely do i BUY anything they have because it's very expensive.

I'm glad they are losing money ... they should market toward a more darker trend fashion not EMO...

[know_buddy_kares]

I alter EVERYTHING I buy ..

I like things they have at hot topic, but rarely do i BUY anything they have because it's very expensive.

I'm glad they are losing money ... they should market toward a more darker trend fashion not EMO...

it would be smart.. emo's kinda getting burned out now, not as popular as it used to be... yet goth is still goin strong.. they got greedy and tried to dive into an investment on a flaky fashion that jail bait girls made... i'm surprised emo lasted longer than a year to be honest...

[GothicRavenGoddess (3)]

Refresh me...what is Torrid again and would I buy anything they sell?

Torrid USE to sell a lot of girly-goth stuff for bigger more curvey goth girls. even their knee-high boots were made to fit legs that were a little thicker..

now you go to the web site, and its very emo/prep/fake wanna be goth. breaks my heart really...

[Morbid Side]

That wouldn't be a bad idea.

Toys R Us = goth

Kids R Us = Emo...'cause emo implies "kid" in my book.

It all makes sense now

I'll make you one of my business partners.

[pheramoans]

Know what else I find? All Hot Topics are not the same. The one here is a joke. I still find things now and then and have snagged some bargains when they had a sale, but the one I went to near Detroit (Westland I think?) had a better selection and I saw several things I wanted. Too bad I was broke at the time *sob*. I'll be back sometime though and want to look through there once again.

Westland IS a good one, plus Rock of Ages is also not too far away for the more hard to find music and band t's. ^.^

The one in A-squared is a joke though [at least last time i was there], it's full of scene kids 24/7 and almost everything they sell has hearts, dinosaurs or plaid on it. yeeeeesch. >.<