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Hot Topic To Buy ThinkGeek Parent Company Geeknet
jones_supa points out the news (also at Ars Technica, and -- paywalled -- at the Wall Street Journal) that clothing and music retailer Hot Topic has announced plans to buy Geeknet, parent company of ThinkGeek and ThinkGeek Solutions, for $117.3 million. ThinkGeek Solutions is a distributor of video-game themed merchandise through licensed web stores. Hot Topic Inc. will pay $17.50 per Geeknet share. Privately held Hot Topic, based in Los Angeles, has more than 650 stores in the U.S. and Canada. Geeknet will become a Hot Topic subsidiary.
This news inspires some nostalgia here; ThinkGeek was for a long time one of Slashdot's sister sites under the umbrella of VA Linux, and I had some fun years back helping to set up the ThinkGeek booth at LinuxWorld in New York.
I'm reminded of a great ending to a South Park episode which pretty much summed up my feelings on Hot Topic.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
I'm still waiting for a Leonard Nimoy Futurama head-in-a-jar with Real Torgo Eating action. Maybe they already sold it.
This news inspires some nostalgia here; ThinkGeek was for a long time one of Slashdot's sister sites under the umbrella of VA Linux, and I had some fun years back helping to set up the ThinkGeek booth at LinuxWorld in New York.
Ah, yes, back in the day before Dice ruined slashdot, those were fine times, weren't they...
This is perfect. I knew there was an emo deep inside every geek :D
First board meeting..."People who don't usually go to the mall...meet people who don't usually go out of the house."
Care killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.
... i'll be able to buy a cute little robot to put my black lipstick on for me and another to organize all my spiky braclets to bookend my binary station display internet-ready radio pre-programmed with several emo music streams already?
Wicked, i'll get mom's credit card ready!
My initial reaction was also "WTF?", but this isn't as completely insane as you might think. I don't know if they still have them, since I haven't checked in probably 10 years, but I used to go into Hot Topic once in a while because they had a few racks of video game-themed t-shirts. So ThinkGeek isn't too far off from stuff that they at least used to have in the stores.
Good luck figuring out who owns Sycamore Partners.
plus $7.00 shipping (more than it actually costs to ship).
Actually that's probably pretty close to their actual cost to ship an item like that. Couriers like Fedex and UPS charge by weight (or dimensional weight) and discounts to shippers are based almost entirely on volume. Thinkgeek doesn't do the kind of volume Amazon does and won't get the kind of discounts Amazon gets. So I'd expect their freight cost to be $5-7 or so for an item like that for ground service with tracking. Then you have to consider handling. They have to pay for a box and stuffing which will probably cost between $0.50-1.00 and they have to pay someone to put the item in the box, seal it, and ship it which is probably another $0.30-0.75. Frankly $7 isn't shocking at all.
People have gotten spoiled on freight costs but I used to own a company that would ship several hundred packages a week and $7 shipping and handling for delivery by UPS or similar is pretty much what you should expect to pay from anyone who isn't a very large company that ships thousands of packages a day.
I rarely go to malls or cd stores anymore but I was at the mall with my teenage son not to long ago. The local hot topic has game, movie, and pop culture t-shirts and hats all displayed at the front of the store and as you go farther from the front door the content becomes more adult until you reach a door that says "you must be 18 to enter".
That was the only stuff I ever really liked at Hot Topic, I bought a Gir plush, later gave it to my son. That show rocked.
At least there's some overlap in their motif and Thinkgeek's inventory, but I'm waiting to see if emo-nerd-goth-geek becomes the new thing .
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
My initial reaction was also "WTF?", but this isn't as completely insane as you might think. I don't know if they still have them, since I haven't checked in probably 10 years, but I used to go into Hot Topic once in a while because they had a few racks of video game-themed t-shirts. So ThinkGeek isn't too far off from stuff that they at least used to have in the stores.
It'll all depend on how much overlap they attempt to force. If they leave the 'alternative' an emo/goth counterculture stuff mostly out of Thinkgeek and don't try to waste retail space in Hot Topic and Torrid with stuff that doesn't appeal to their customers then they might be fine. If they turn Thinkgeek into a bastion of Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise and attempt to use the modern not-geek fad of the term geek with a bunch of plastic junk that doesn't appeal then we might have a problem.
I've shopped from both businesses, but not for the same reasons. If they keep them mostly separate and then it may work well, otherwise it could turn into a crappier version of Spencer's Gifts.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
They're both retailers. OF COURSE they're going to sellout. THAT'S WHAT retail IS.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Think Geek has a store ? I have only seen them on the web.
Shopping through a catalog is still shopping.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I remember when I was in college over 15 years ago, I was a sometime-goth and would buy dresses from Hot Topic because it annoyed most of the student body (where I went, the population was mostly black, or white kids trying to act that way).
I was at one point I was gossiped about, and was called a witch, Satan-worshiper, that sort of thing. Which was a rumor I loved so very much because it kept the Jesus freaks just far enough away that they didn't try to convert me.
Even after I outgrew the whole goth thing, I started finding it disappointing that Hot Topic was turning more into Spencer's. Not that I think being "goth" is any less eye-roll-worthy (I was as pretentious a kid as anyone, and I'll gladly take shit for it) as "stoner", "hipster", "preppie", "geek chic" or whatever, though it's disappointing to see that kind of outlet for kids who want to do that sort of thing devolve and go away.
Of course, I went through a "Think Geek" phase as well, which is more or less the same thing: "Look at the nerdy toy/t-shirt I bought from Think Geek! I am SO a nerd!" Nowadays, I roll my eyes at the two-years-post-college-age kids I know because they're trying just as hard as I did back then to make damn sure the world sees them that way.
I wouldn't interrupt it for anything, because it wouldn't do me or them any good anyway. I simply tell them that I'm going to be archiving their posts from Facebook and showing the feed to them ten years from now, because it's going to be fun watching them realize how right I was when I kept referring to them as "kids".
Some people don't believe in fairies. I don't believe in The Patriarchy.
Now all Think Geek merch will be Emo and the packaging will cut it's self open!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I think you are missing the point. They are not going to merge the two organizations. Hot Topic will remain Hot Topic, ThinkGeek will remain ThinkGeek. Both will carry their own lines – I expect some cross over but not much.
However, in one sense they are very much alike. They both market pop culture goods to a niche market. Their goods are partially based on fads so they have a short shelf life. Lots of custom stuff that you can't find in a more traditional retail shop like Amazon or Wal-Mart.
What they are going to combing is the back off stuff. Accounting and procurement are at the top of my list.
I think he was saying that a tiny USB PacMan light is going to be so small as to not actually cost $7 to ship it.
Even a 1 pound ground package will be cost something close to $7-10 and probably more if it is any distance. UPS and Fedex don't deal in weights less than a pound - they round up to the nearest pound. You don't have to take my word for it. Go ahead and try to get a better price from Fedex or UPS. I promise you that you cannot do it.
It should be about $3 or less.
It isn't $3 and won't be unless you ship a HUGE (meaning many tens of thousands) number of packages. The only way you might get a shipping cost that low would be to ship it in a padded envelope using first class mail via USPS with no tracking. I've been shipping via UPS and Fedex for literally decades. Your perception of what it should cost to ship doesn't match reality.
The prices are already marked up so fucking high I can see up Ms. PacMan's skirt, they can afford to let a couple of small items ship for free
High prices does not mean they are necessarily profitable and no it doesn't mean they necessarily can afford to ship stuff for free. Maybe they can but you simply don't have the information to make that judgement.
There are a couple of assholes sellers on Amazon charging $18 to ship a fucking $7 item, but for the most part Amazon ships stuff for very little, or free.
There is no such thing as free shipping. If it is "free" then it is simply rolled into the price of the item, possibly at the expense of the profit margin of the vendor. Companies like Amazon get good shipping rates because they ship an enormous volume of packages. I use their Prime service and it's great but I have no illusions that the service is actually free of charge.
If 90% of your business is done via selling online then shipping, this cost must be built into the item. I don't pay Walmart a separate fee for someone to unbox a carton and stock the shelves. Nor do I pay a fee for someone to put my stuff in a bag.
Just because you don't pay the fee separately doesn't mean you don't pay it. And if you go to the grocery store and someone puts your groceries in the bag you had better believe their paycheck is partly covered by your bill. They aren't doing it as a charity. Some are just more clever about hiding the charge than others.
There is no such thing as free shipping or free handling. Whether you break out the charge separately or lump it all together you'll end up paying it one way or the other.
Isn't Hot Topic the store in the mall where all the teens go to buy stuff that makes them unique, just like all the other teens?
Yep, you've hit it on the head: the fashion world heavily depends on hyperspecific brands. A parent company may own an immense number of outlet identities that aim to cater to a specific submarket. Hot Topic is a good parent company for ThinkGeek because their model is already built around faddish, meme-driven trends (as you said), but the two target audiences have little enough overlap that this will be a substantial diversification to their marketing reach.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I first read it as "Hot Pocket", which I think would be a better fit.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Anyone remember the Internet video meme "Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
"Hot Topic is a contrived identification with geek subcultures to manufacture a free software identity and make millions.
The 8 dollars you paid for the World of Warcraft poster would be better used to help the EFF.
DIY 3D printing is geek, developing your own app is geek, Dennis Ritchie was geek.
But when a crass corporate vulture feeds on mass-consumer culture, then spending Mommy's money Is Not Geek!"
Considering TFA (all three of them) are dated May 26, 2015, I don't think so...
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
Thinkgeek has pretty much already been that for years now. Most of their stuff is amazingly overpriced shitty chinese "geek-ish" flavored bullshit. My local hardware and army/navy surplus stores do a better job of catering to actual nerds than thinkgeek does.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
USPS offers tracking. Your shipping back-end should capture this tracking number, write it to the order shipment table, and send e-mail to the customer. That way, calls about "where's my stuff?" can be handled with a script: "Log in to your account, open past orders, and click the Track button."