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lazypadawanWith just about every retailer, especially mall stores, reporting down sales the past few months, one store is actually reporting increased business: Hot Topic. And it's all because of fangirls busting down the doors for "Twilight" merchandise:
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/03/retails_great_savior_twilight.html
On Hot Topic's website you can find a bonanza of "Twilight" merch: t-shirts with every conceivable character, pins, bracelets (my favorite is the "I'm In Love With A Fictional Character" bracelet...pretty much the mantra of every fangirl, isn't it?), cheesy chokers, keychains, posters, stickers, patches, and lunchboxes. I'm sure sales will be continue to be good for while, with the DVD release likely to hook more fans. Then when the sequel drops, there will be more ka-ching.
Seriously, I think HT sells more stuff to geeks than to the punks, goths, skater kids, and metal heads it supposedly caters to anyway. Without the occasional SW goodies, I'd probably wouldn't have set foot again in HT once I was over 30. Moreover, there hasn't been a property whose primary demographic are teenage girls and young women in a long time. "Twilight" fits the store's rock/goth image, although you don't have to be one to be a fan. It was the perfect convergence.
Maybe the lesson in all of this is that folks like us are truly the key to reviving the economy. Seriously, no matter how broke fans are, they will find ways to keep blowing money on fannish things. For instance, Comic Con four day passes are almost sold out! Recession, what recession? Maybe the government should have just divvied up the trillion dollars among every geek, nerd, fanboy, and fangirl in America and tell them to go to town. We'll have the economy back up and running in no time!
http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/03/retails_great_savior_twilight.html
On Hot Topic's website you can find a bonanza of "Twilight" merch: t-shirts with every conceivable character, pins, bracelets (my favorite is the "I'm In Love With A Fictional Character" bracelet...pretty much the mantra of every fangirl, isn't it?), cheesy chokers, keychains, posters, stickers, patches, and lunchboxes. I'm sure sales will be continue to be good for while, with the DVD release likely to hook more fans. Then when the sequel drops, there will be more ka-ching.
Seriously, I think HT sells more stuff to geeks than to the punks, goths, skater kids, and metal heads it supposedly caters to anyway. Without the occasional SW goodies, I'd probably wouldn't have set foot again in HT once I was over 30. Moreover, there hasn't been a property whose primary demographic are teenage girls and young women in a long time. "Twilight" fits the store's rock/goth image, although you don't have to be one to be a fan. It was the perfect convergence.
Maybe the lesson in all of this is that folks like us are truly the key to reviving the economy. Seriously, no matter how broke fans are, they will find ways to keep blowing money on fannish things. For instance, Comic Con four day passes are almost sold out! Recession, what recession? Maybe the government should have just divvied up the trillion dollars among every geek, nerd, fanboy, and fangirl in America and tell them to go to town. We'll have the economy back up and running in no time!
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Date: 2009-03-17 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-17 06:36 am (UTC)Butters thinks he's a vamp. It's pretty hilarious.
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Date: 2009-03-17 10:32 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's good stuff. The Goth kids torch the place at the end.
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Date: 2009-03-17 05:44 pm (UTC)The only thing I've ever bought in a Hot Topic store was a HP Gryffindor baby tee. I definitely didn't have any interest in their "usual" attire.
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Date: 2009-03-26 10:05 am (UTC)SDCC sounds a bit like a trade show to me, from what I have read and heard. Dragoncon, with all its many faults and flaws, is still a fan-run con, but getting too big, alas.