I expect the employees at a place like Hot Topic to be awful, snarky creatures. I’m in my early 30’s, so they must think I’m ancient. I also don’t dress goth. So there’s that strike against me too. These employees seem to be generally pretty nice. My daughter knocked over a whole pile of My Little Pony stuff and one of the staff girls came over and made sure to pick it up without making her feel bad. That was real nice. I have heard some strange store policy explanations… but I don’t know if that’s on the employee or the actual corporate policy. Anyway, as far as stores like this goes, there is no reason not to go in here.