Hot Topics Store Fred
Hot Topics Store Servicing a Demographic
I know that probably almost every devoted customer of Hot Topics Stores would be very put out that I would describe them as a demographic, since most of them I've met like to think of themselves as being too individual to shop at chain stores like Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister. Except that the Hot Topics Store is a chain, a franchise, a business dependent on their demographic. It's just like Abercrombie and Fitch, only it hasn't been as popular as long (I think). But still, it's the same sheep in a different skin (and maybe a different breed, but still a sheep).
Hot Topics Store Bringing Stuff
Hot Topics Store still feeds into the same materialistic society as every other store in the mall. Example; Hot Topics Store can usually be found in a mall (big huge clue number one). And I've heard that their employees are reviewed (and possibly even payed) by commission (sort of; they keep track of their number of customers). If they weren't materialistic just like Old Navy and The Gap, then that wouldn't be so. Besides, they're horribly overpriced (part of that is their typical mall location, I'm sure, but part of that is also probably the fact that they are serving a choosy, materialistic subculture that will pay good money to be "cool" like everyone else at the mall). And most of the stuff at the Hot Topics Store is stuff you really don't need, not at all.
Hot Topics Store Self-Righteousness
But the biggest frustration that I have with the Hot Topics Store and some of the regular customers that I have come to know is the glaring hypocrisy evident in their individualistic mentality. They think that they can shop at a franchise store like Hot Topics Store and be more individual, less cookie cutter mainstream than those who shop at a different franchise mall store. First of all, I am kind of a believer in the "nothing new under the sun" theory, that we can't try to find our person-hood, our self, in being totally and completely different from everyone else. People who try to find their Self, their Soul, in being different from everyone else are ultimately just as insecure, out of step, and misdirected as those who try to find their Soul in being like everyone else. So if you're going to shop at Hot Topics Store, shop there, but don't make it who you are. And definitely don't look down on someone else because they like a different store than you.
