What absolute horror stories do you have from working at Hot Topic?

I worked at a Hot Topic in 99 to 2000. We used to get a fair amount of exotic dancers that came in because we were the only place that sold see-through vinyl tops and six-inch stack boots and stuff like that.

Anyway, our fitting room was basically a hole cut into a wall with a mirror and thick curtain that had to be pulled closed just right. This one day, one of these ladies who takes her clothes off for money, came in to try on a bunch of stuff and really didn't even bother with the curtain. Apparently, she was just so used to people seeing her natural form that it wasn't a big deal for her. Granted, this was a weekday morning and she and her manager or boyfriend or whatever he was,

were the only people in the store besides my manager and me.

At one point, she just stopped using the fitting room altogether,

and was just using the full-length mirror on the door to the stock room.

My manager and I really had no idea what to do,

because at this point she's got about

1,500 to 2 grand worth of merchandise that she's probably buying, and this lady is good for both

business and morale. She didn't really seem to be worried at the prospect of anyone seeing her,

and the way our store was set up was really narrow and long, and the display fixtures were

tall and bulky. It was very difficult to see into and

out of the store unless you were standing in the centre aisle. It made loss prevention a nightmare,

but really allowed this lady to let her freak flag fly. She finally puts her clothes on the cash

wrap as she's checking out. My manager gave me so much crap after that because I was so

embarrassed that I couldn't even

make eye contact with the customer while I rang her up. That was the largest transaction I've ever

rung up in my time there and paid for it with the largest wad of cash I'd seen in my life up until

that point. In short, a woman who takes her clothes off for money came in on a slow day and

treated the store like her own private

dressing room. My high school girlfriend worked there back in the day. She said the worst part of the

day was having to collect merchandise from the fitting rooms and cleaning the fitting rooms.

...