Spirit Halloween's Owner Buying Hot Topic Stores In Illinois

An acquisition that may make us all feel old.

If you remember the glory mall days, Hot Topic was the home of alt/goth/punk clothes, and stuff ranging from hair dye to video games. You always found the most unique of the cool stuff at Hot Topic.

Now, Spirit Halloween's parent company, Spencer Spirit Holdings, has announced that they're taking on Hot Topic Inc. too.

It will bring Hot Topic, BoxLunch, and Her Universe under the same umbrella of the company's already 3,000 stores (these are the same folks that own Spencer's stores too). Over half of those are Spirit Halloween stores and a few dozen of them are Spirit Christmas stores.

Meanwhile, the pending question you've had all through this: will my local Hot Topic become a seasonal Spirit Halloween store? Current answer to that is no. But I've seen some people on social media asking for band-themed Halloween costumes in Hot Topic? So maybe that crossover could make Hot Topic edgy again? The plan is still to keep Hot Topics open year-long in malls.

Mall stores, as we know from the last few years, are dying. Last summer, Claire's filed for bankruptcy and closed hundreds of stores. Plus-sized store Torrid closed nearly 200 stores.

But. Reports from this year show that Gen Z are going back to malls, a lot. Some say it's just easier to return something than if you bought it online, especially if your size varies brand-to-brand. So maybe we'll get a mall renaissance in the next few years, food court and all.