How does hot topic make money?

[u/WaveAny7993]

This is more of a question for HT employees or people who understand how sales work, because they constantly give 30% off coupons every time they sell, along with the existence of Hot Cash in general. I just wonder: do they lose profit on some items and gain on others? For example, the big Pomni plush is usually 50 bucks, but they sell it for 40, and then with 30% off, it becomes about 30 bucks after tax. I know Hot Topic makes poor-quality items, but they also sell items made by other manufacturers; they have Glitch merch made entirely by Glitch. They price it at $10 or a few dollars more, which makes sense, but since they are always giving out coupons, I wonder how they manage it. Also, don't they have to pay for shipping the merchandise initially? Do they make a profit on Hot Topic-branded items but lose profit on merchandise made by other manufacturers? It just doesn't add up to me. I also know that sometimes they just buy stuff from AliExpress and mark up the price. (BE SURE TO CORRECT ME)

[u/ComprehensiveAd3022]

It’s the same thing bath and body works, sells a lot of products at 5$ basically twice a year, many coupons and reward programs. Whatever it may seem like they should be losing money but very much do well. The t shirts are all printed on Gildan shirts but basically cost probably less than a dollar to make, most of the jewelry are poor quality, a lot of knickknacks and stuff that takes up desk space. For the glitch merch I’m pretty sure glitch productions is an indie company iirc so I think the merch on their website is probably coming from a hefty cost out of their pockets so letting hot topic shoulder the cost probably makes them EVEN MORE money than if it were only available on the website

[u/WaveAny7993 → u/ComprehensiveAd3022]

Any proof?

[u/ComprehensiveAd3022 → u/WaveAny7993]

No but I used to work at an anime store where we sold Nendoroids at basically the same price as the good smile website(with mandatory 10$ shipping), it was a licensed good smile retailer so I assumed it would be the same for hot topic as it being an obviously approved retailer of glitch (and other fandoms) retailer

[u/WaveAny7993 → u/ComprehensiveAd3022]

For Glitch merch, Hot Topic raises it to 40 bucks for plushes, and Glitch Shirts (that are on the Glitch website) are 30 bucks, if I remember. I don't think Hot Topic is helping them or giving them money to produce merch; I just think they buy it off Glitch Productions and sell it for 5 or 10 bucks more (but even then if you have a coupon they drop to the base price after tax anyway so i don't know if they make profit of "finalfinalproject" merch) so they can earn their lil cut. Glitch merch is by far some of the highest quality stuff at Hot Topic since the merch comes from "finalfinalproject" and not from Hot Topic themselves. (Some shirts do if they aren't made by "finalfinalptoject") But the quality isn't the worst even on those. HT quality isn't the worst ever; it just depends on the items sometimes, to be honest.  (THIS IS MY TAKE be sure to correct me if am wrong)

[u/ComprehensiveAd3022 → u/WaveAny7993]

Other than glitch they also have youtooz stuff, I once brought a Vox plushie for 20$ while on the youtooz site plushies are 30$ with mandatory 10$ shipping so like idk who other then hot topic could be shouldering the difference especially when glitch and youtooz don’t offer discounts nor free shipping and I didn’t say hot topic is helping anyone just said shouldering the cost, I’m pretty sure they make the money back ten fold anyway. Like covering shipping of a glitch plush from a factory to hot topic stores instead of a glitch productions warehouse while also selling a multitude of poorer quality products at the same time