hot topic

A store that in its heyday ('90s-'10s) had mass appeal to faggoths, "edgy" skater kids, pop punkers and other strumous tenderlings. Common items sold there in this period included ridiculous kinky parachute pants, useless Happy Bunny accessories, CDs by Korn, HIM, Avril Lavigne and shirts displaying unfunny "ironic" slogans and overplayed pop culture references. With the decline of mallgoth fad the store renovated its image to appeal to "scene" bandwagon jumpers, replacing dominatrix pants with ball-splitting skinny jeans, nu metal CDs with screechy metalcore and endless HIM paraphernalia with neon-gore t-shirts of "scene" bands like Bring Me the Horizon and Blood on the Dance Floor. With its continuing declining sales, Hot Topic has also tried to appeal to a more "preppy" crowd by peddling worthless Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj merch. The store's bankruptcy is becoming increasingly imminent, with the "scene" trend going out of style, replaced by swaggotry, a fad already catered to by Zumiez that Hot Topic could never pull off due to its "goffik" roots. The other prominent youth trend of the '10s, hipsterdom, is one Hot Topic could never take advantage of as no hipster would ever shop at such a "mnstrm" outlet (they prefer American Eagle). And old Hot Topic shoppers are butthurt they no longer have a place to pick up edgy BDSM getups, heartagram dildos and Happy Bunny thongs. Looks like an appropriately dark future for Hot Topic...