So You Want To Run a Comic Book Store

I had a mom come in a little while ago, telling me her son wanted to do what I do and said he'd come and work for free. I told her that wasn't the best idea for many reasons, #1 for me was that I really didn't need to have someone hanging around the store all day. But I will pass along the advice I gave her.

Let me start by giving you the brief rundown of my illustrious career in retail. After graduating college, I bounced around many jobs. After leaving a job selling Chevy's, I ended up working at a Radio Shack. Someone I had worked with told me he made good money there during the holidays, so when I found myself unemployed in November, I decided to give it a shot. It wasn't bad, certainly better than selling cars in January, so I stuck it out. Eventually, I would run 2 stores on my own, before moving to Chicago.

While it certainly wasn't glamorous, it taught me a lot about merchandising, ordering, dealing with employees and dealing with customers. And all of this has been invaluable in running my Comic Book store.

Think about your typical comic book shop. Most of them are organized so that the employees can find stuff easily, not necessarily the customers. Half full boxes laying around. Stacks of stuff lying around. 2 employees arguing about who would win a fight between Spawn and Impossible Man. I told the mom to have her son get a job as an assistant manager in some national chain retail store. The reason for this is the job will have training and structure. Corporate will have requirements, created through years of trial and error. Corporate will tell you exactly how to do your job. And this is really crucial.

The single greatest thing that comic book store employees are missing is customer service. I cringe in fear thinking about my mom going into my old comic shop to get me something. If they bothered to talk to her, it would probably have been just to point in a general direction. All that lady is doing is interrupting their really cool day. They are better than their comic reading friends because they actually work in a comic shop. How cool is that! I get to read comics all day. And talk about comics all day. I'm king of the world!

And I think that this is what the lady's son was looking for. Wouldn't that be a cool job? Well, come by and ask Jason, my helper, who is sorting and bagging 90 long boxes, how glamorous it is. Or counting all the books on the shelf or all of the trades so I can figure out what I am out of. It is a job just like any other. Does it have its own unique perks? Sure. But the store won't be around long if people don't come back.

What Radio Shack taught me was how to deal with the person who didn't know exactly what they needed. Anyone can ring up a person who brings their stuff to the counter. It takes customer service to help someone find what they want or to give them purchase options. It takes asking questions and listening to the answer. Or how about add-on sales? When was the last time someone suggested something to you at the register?

Now can I teach someone how to do it the way I do? Maybe. But I don't really have time to teach. I just do it. I try to make attractive displays with like products so that someone looking for one thing may find another. I try to make sure everything is clearly priced. I try to make thinks as easy to find as I can (Space is becoming a factor in this one right now). Go work for a big box store (or a Radio Shack) for a summer and learn about dealing with customers. That will put you head and shoulders above many comic books shops out there right now.

Season's Greetings

Yeah, I know its late. Just don't ask a retailer to do anything around the holidays except sell, sell, sell.

Its been another great holiday season. Luck willing, I will pass last years Decembers sales today and still have through Wednesday to show gain. Which is good. Especially in this "troubled" economy.

I got my invoice for next week and I was dismayed by the lack of product coming in. But when I started looking at it, I was overwhelmed by the great stuff coming in. So next Friday will be a test. Is it better to get a great variety of product or a smaller amount of very popular and sought after books? Heck, even Kick Ass is coming out!

Marvel's What If? line

I have always loved What If? comics from Marvel. I often used them to learn about a story that I didn't know, like the Evolutionary War. And then it would take a different spin on it. But too often they turned into try out books. It seems like and editor would come up with a story idea and then give it to a new writer and artist as a try-out book. I remember some from the '90s being almost unreadable.

The 2 new ones that came out the last 2 weeks feel like that again. The last bunch from last year were good. I didn't care for the X-Men one, but they were good overall. The last 2 are really substandard. Specifically the art. The House of M one was a little light on story (the cosmic cube is a little more powerful than they gave it credit for) but the art brought to mind porn comics and not in a good way. I just read the Fallen Son one. The story was solid, but the art... Maybe he just needed an inker. It all looked unfinished. Like it was trying to be Tommy Lee Edwards, but not good enough.

2 really substandard books give me little hope that the rest of the current run will be any good. Too bad. I was really looking forward to it.

On a side note, I have never read the Young Avengers and only the first trade of Runaways, so the back up story make little sense to me at all.

An Open Request to Marvel Comics

Dear Mr. Wacker,

Please put Marcos Martin on as many Spider-Man arcs as possible. Or give him his own spin-off book. His art is so perfect for Spider-Man. The bend in the fingers. The way the costume looks like cloth, not just drawn onto his body. they way he looks like he is straining while lifting something heavy. Even the way he made the Shocker's costume look like it was actually padded as opposed to just covered in criss-crossed lines.

Also, could I please get the original art from pg #15 of issue 561 or page #4 or 6 from issue 579.

Thanks

The Irony of Running a Comic Book Store is

that I am generally the last person to ask about what is coming up in comics. I read a lot and, while I can remember specifics about books, I generally can't tell you what is happening in upcoming books. What made me realize this is that I was really excited about the new issue of Justice Society. I know, from reading the Previews, that there is a big Black Adam arc coming up. So I assumed it was the end for the Gog storyline. now don't get me wrong. I have been enjoying the storyline. But I thought it was ending, mostly because I am focusing on books 2 months from now. Last Tuesday I had to finalize my order for November and I started looking at the December order book. But this latest issue was from the September order book. That was 3 books ago for me. My memory is not that good.

Trying to keep all of this info in my head has gotten to be too much. Same with subscription customers. I do apologize, but I can no longer remember all of the books you get off the top of my head. I have a fancy dancy program that does that for me. But calling and asking what is coming in for you the next week is now beyond me.

Crazy Thursday Ahead

Thursday is normally my "Get everything organized" day after the craziness of New Comics Day. I get all of the statues out and make sure everything is back where it is supposed to be. It is also the day I get my invoice for the next weeks books, so I update the website and do the board in the store. (If you've never been to the store, the board is a 3'x2' dry erase board that I write every thing that is coming in the next week on. I rarely do it in one try. And I have to concentrate to make my writing legible. It is my weekly chore that I enjoy.)

But this week, new comics are coming on Thursday. Bit of a bummer because I lose a day to sell them. And the weeks never quite work out right. Wednesday is usually very slow because all of the regulars know not to come in on Wednesday and Thursday sales are rarely equal to Wednesday + Thursday.

But, there are a lot of books I am interested in reading this week. So don't ruin Secret Invasion for me. I probably won't be able to read it until I get home.

Hello Blog World!

I used to only blog when I felt I had something important to say or something was really bugging me. Which, as I guy who sits in a comic book shop all day, was fairly infrequently. Hence, a barely used blog.

But 2009 is going to be different. (Yeah, I know, you’ve heard that before). This Twitter thing has gotten me in the mood to something daily. Plus I want to create more of an online presence for the store, primarily via eBay, but also to get my name out there and let people know I am here.

So, my plan is to have something out there much more frequently, maybe even every day.

Today was pretty uneventful, mostly just doing a reorder of the gobs of stuff that sold this weekend. It scares me when my weekly reorder is bigger than some of my regular weekly orders in my first year.

Friday night was kind of slow (shopper burn-out) and I had the Freakangels trade on the counter, so I picked it up and started reading. Really good stuff by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. Its the story of 12 powered people in London who combined t cause a world catastrophe and how they are dealing with the aftermath. Very interesting stuff and I am eager to see where he is going with this. It is a collection of an online comic, so I got caught up there, but I do highly recommend it.

Not much, but hey, it’s a start.