Me, doing research: Oh, wow, Hot Topic was founded in 1988? That’s earlier than I expected.
Me, scrolling down a bit, doing a comical spit take:
You CANNOT be serious????
Yep. It was originally mail-order, but they opened their first retail store in 1963.
Also discovered that Spencers owns the Spirit Halloween stores, which explains why they always know where the empty stores are in the malls.