Hot Topic — Local services in Palmetto Bay

THIS POST ONLY HAS 1 STAR SO I CAN POST IT-------I went into the Falls store today 4/25/16 to purchase some swimwear that I had seen online and because I needed it at a certain time I couldn't order it for it wouldn't be here on time, I was holding the merchandise in my hand and was still looking for my size and while I was looking the alarm went off (keep in mind there was a rack of swimsuits by the door and me and my 12 yr old daughter were standing on the other side of the rack away from the door) the store manager GABBY ran over to where I was and says to me " would you like me to hold your merchandise because the alarm is beeping and its annoying the customers" (as if im not a customer) so I say to her " no I don't need you to hold anything for me" and she says "well its beeping" and I say "well its a rack of clothing right by the door" and I threw the clothes at her and told her "I don't even want to buy nothing anymore"...and proceeded to walk out the door with my daughter and she says "you have to come back inside the store because your beeping and I have to check" so I say "well its a rack of clothes right there and there are other people here as well"(they were Hispanic) and I said "what do you want to see my purse?" and I opened my purse to let her see and I lift up my shirt as well so she can see because she was still saying im beeping, so I walked out of the store and it was still beeping so when I realized that it was I walked back in and asked to speak to the manager and she (GABBY) said very rude "I AM THE STORE MANAGER" and I said "well you owe me an apology because you accused me of stealing when it was still beeping when I left and it didn't stop until you moved the merchandise from by the door", and she said " I don't owe you nothing im doing my job and you need to leave before I call security" and I said "call who you want to call cause im calling corporate" and she said I don't care. If you're going to that store be careful of GABBY especially if you're African American (as I was the only one in the store with my daughter) she will accuse you of stealing and she is very rude to customers, even after I called the store to speak to the manager (which was her) she was rude and I was on the other phone with the corporate office associate who heard her and...

The only reason I am giving one star above two stars is because the sales associate, Ashlee was super helpful, nice, friendly, and gave outstanding customer service and went above and beyond and was super patient. Thank you Ashlee for your excellent help, even with all my indecisiveness with which T-Shirt to get! Anyways, when I first called that morning asking about a shirt that the website said was in stock, the sales associate on the phone had no clue what I was talking about even when I gave her the product ID number or described it to her, she then said there was zero in stock, but when I went to the store, there were multiple shirts in multiple sizes of the product I was asking for. Maybe it’s something with the lookup system, it’s probably not her fault, but just something to take note of. The T-shirt section in store is unlabeled when it comes to bands, which makes it very hard to know which shirt to get without messing up the merchandise. The fitting room is always locked which can get annoying when you want to try on multiple things and a sales associate needs to open it for you each time. Other than that, very great selection of different band merch for different musicians and bands. I didn’t like how one of the managers was talking to the sales associate that helped me though! Ashlee did a great job of doing what she’s employed to do, it seems to me she deserves more respect and not be treated in a passive agressive tone. Would come back again if I’m ever in the area and need another band shirt...

My daughter was very impressed by the merchandise and fan based audience targeting, but I am a bit bleh about the store specifically. It's much better to shop the Hot Topic online store for availability of specific products. This store was small yet jam packed and felt very crowded. I think about 1/3 of the store had merchandise on a clearance sale. The cashier and or workers there were very nice, and the store was nicely clean/well maintained, but hard to find what you're looking for. The shirts they had posted on the walls with the matching shirts of different sizes available below were neatly organized, but hard to see with dark lighting and overloaded shelving/shirt...