Hot Topic Posts 34% Rise in Holiday Sales

Hot Topic Inc., a mall-based specialty retailer that caters to teens, said sales for the nine weeks ended Saturday that made up the 1998 holiday shopping season rose 34% to $30 million from $22.4 million in the year-ago period. Same-store sales--or sales at stores open at least a year--decreased 7.2% for the nine-week period compared with a year ago. Pomona-based Hot Topic said sales picked up after Christmas. It also said that sales this season were hurt in part because, unlike last year when it introduced a line of merchandise pegged to the popular “South Park” animated cable show, it had no similar blockbuster product line this year. The company expects to release fourth-quarter sales figures the first week of February. Hot Topic operates 157 stores in 38 states. Its shares rose 63 cents to close at $13.50 on Nasdaq.