Back on Track!

September has been a crazy month. Sales were down, but I was busier and more unorganized than I can ever remember. The trip to Vegas the first weekend of the month really threw me for a loop and kept me off balance all month. I was talking to a customer Saturday and realized I had forgotten to add some books to his pull list that he had asked me to a long time ago. I knew I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants and this confirmed it.

So, no more. I am going to get everything neatened up and I am going to get myself organized. I will be blogging at least weekly and I will updating more than just the "Coming this Week" list on the website. I will be reading more, reviewing more and recommending more. I am adding a big fixture this week, so hopefully things will start getting more organized and looking fresher.

So, come by and take a look at the changes I have made.

I Don't Understand Commercial Leasing Agents

I found out something that blows my mind, so I thought I'd pass it along. All I know about commercial real estate is what I have dealt with personally. I hope someone out there is reading this and can enlighten me to what I ma missing. Here is my history.

March 2006. I decide I am really really going to open my store. I start driving around looking for good places to rent. There is one on the side of a shopping center. Not great, but the right size and maybe a good place to start. So I call the guy up. I had dealt with him for a client on another space in another town regarding the lease, so I felt good about the situation. We start discussing amounts and stuff. He gives me a range of what the spot would rent for. We'll call this place spot #1. So I think about it. I also find an empty spot in another strip near me and I inquire to the leasing agent as to what it would run. I turns out that space is waayyy too big for me at present, but he has another spot available. We'll call this space #2. The problem with this space is that they currently have a tenant there who they are evicting, so we can't get into the space. It is a photo studio, so all I can see is the reception area. We drive around and find some other spaces, one being a building that is being rebuilt (space #3) and some others. I make inquiry calls to the others, but they are a bit ridiculous, considering what they offer. Most of these have remained empty or had spots fill and empty on a regular basis. No one stays long.

So, spots #1 and #2 are both in strips that can't be seen form the street and are on the sides of the plazas. One can bee seen driving in, if you don't look where you are going. #2 is behind a bank drive through. So neither are very good at all, but I am not in a position to be really choosy. Good spots are too expensive and I am just starting out. #1 is the better of the two choices. So I tell the agent I am ready to go forward. Could he send me the lease to look at. If I can get it at the lowest of the rent range he gave me, I can do it. Of course, it is at the highest of the rates ($8 sq ft more). I tell him no way. He doesn't even counter offer. He just says ok. 2+ years later he finally found a tenant for it.

So I focus more on spot #2. It is less than the lower range of #1, but it is really in a bad spot and I still haven't even been able to see how big it is. So, 3 months of back and forth on when I can see it. I am now 2 months from my projected opening date and he still can't let me in, but he wants me to sign the lease to hold it. I give up. I dig through my notes and find the number for #3, one I really have never thought more about. It is on a side street, but it is right on the street. I call and stop by to look at it. It is perfect. It is my current home and I have been very happy there.

So, now I am running out of room. I need more space to put more stuff out on display. I can expand into gaming, if I have a place for tables. I can get back issues out if I have tables to put them on. The best thing for me would be for the nail place next to me to move so I could knock out the wall and just expand. I have that in writing to my landlord, but I haven't heard anything yet. Their lease is up in July, so hopefully I will hear something by the end of the year. One way or another, I would like to know what is going on.

There is a big store that recently opened. A standalone furniture store went out. It is a 5000 sq ft store, 5 times as much as I have now. Now I can't afford to have my rent go up that much, but I figured I would at least ask how much it was. I contacted the agent with the big sign out front. I contacted him once a month for four months until he actually responded. His response was that they were in negotiations to lease it and thanks for asking. So, ok. I probably couldn't have afforded it anyway, but being big and standalone, I figured they may have trouble filling it and may like a tenant on the cheap.

Nothing has happened in it for a couple of months now. So I am driving by today and I see something in the windows. I look closely as I get near. They are McCain campaign signs. He blew me off to rent the place for two months.

I would have to guess that commercial tenants are not banging down the doors right now. Place #1 just rented the space I was looking at, but still has two empty spaces. Place #2 did rent that spot, but they have 2 or 3 open spots as well. A new strip is just about done being built. It was a thought, but it is almost double my current sq ft rate, so doubling my space would quadruple my rent.

I realize that a comic book store is not the most common of businesses, but I am doing very well and I am looking to grow. Wouldn't it behoove a leasing agent to at least give me the time of day?

Kevin Smith Batman. Really?

So, I am looking at the DC solicits for November on Newsarama and I come across this:

BATMAN: CACOPHONY #1
Written by Kevin Smith
Art by Walt J. Flanagan & Sandra Hope
Cover by Adam Kubert
Variant cover by Andy Kubert
Sketch cover by Andy Kubert
Best-selling comic book writer/director Kevin Smith (GREEN ARROW, Daredevil, Clerks) steps into Gotham City to write this 3-part miniseries event! Practically from out of nowhere, the mysterious masked killer known as Onomatopoeia returns and sets his sights – and sounds – against The Caped Crusader!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with three covers. For every 25 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Adam Kubert), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Andy Kubert). For every 50 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by Adam Kubert), retailers may order one copy of the Sketch Edition (with a cover by Andy Kubert). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale November 12 • 1 of 3 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Several questions pop into my head:
1. Is the whole thing written, or just the first issue? I feel this is a pretty valid question.
2. What does Walt Flanagan's art look like? I know he's Smith's friend and runs his comic shop in Jersey, but can he draw?
3. Based on the previous 2 questions, does DC seriously expect ANYONE to order 25 or 50 copies of this? A 1:10 variant, maybe, but 25. Not a chance. With the possibility of #2 hitting in 2010, sorry.

And I'm really not trying to bash Kevin Smith. I thought Daredevil Guardian Devil and Green Arrow Quiver were excellent stories. But Spider-Man Black Cat and the still unfinished Daredevil: Target make me less than comfortable going heavy on a new book of his with unknown art. And a variant Kubert cover is really not the draw it once was. If the brothers had not botched Batman and Action, there may be more good will towards them, but not now. And a $4 cover price makes this one even more potentially unsellable.

OK, enough of a rant for now. I'll keep reading about what's coming and see if there is anything else of note.

Watchmen and the Genius of DC Sales Team

Several weeks ago, before the trailer of Watchmen was out, DC ran a promotion for Comic Book shops where we could order as many copies of the Watchmen graphic novel as I want and at a date in future I can return the unsold copies and only pay for what I don't return. I found out that 18 fit in a box, so, what the heck, I ordered 18. The promo stuff was gearing up. The action figures and mini busts were being ordered. What could it hurt.

I am now down to 2 copies left. In the 1 week since the trailer went up, I have now sold 16 of the 18 copies (including 1 copy while I was typing this). I am sure that the other 2 will be gone by the end of the day. This is incredible. And I have to commend DC for doing it right.

There is no way I would have ever ordered that many copies. Ever. Even if I knew the trailer was going to be there. But I had nothing to lose. And I will be ordering 18 more to arrive Wednesday. The best part is that I am sure that the book stores were caught unaware, even Amazon. And I am sure many comic books stores did not take advantage of the offer like I did.

Here's why I think that it worked so well. Comic readers have long loved Watchmen and non-comic people have most likely at least heard of it. The trailer is on one of the biggest opening movies ever. Comic book people are giddy about the trailer (well at least I am). And it stirs that interest to read it again. "Where's my copy? I lent it to someone and never got it back. I need to read it now!" So the people that know it want it again. And their friends who are sitting with them at Batman go "What's that about?" and the comic reading friend gushes about it. So they also want a copy. And the people who have no comic friends, but see the trailer think it looks interesting and POW, its on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and other places. Its all over the internet. "If this many people say its good, I'll give it a shot."

Hence 16 copies of a $20 book sold in 1 week. And its only going to grow.

Thank you for being proactive DC, and making sure I had the opportunity to stock the shelves to take advantage of this. It is a win-win-win situation for all involved.

Now to pull out my battered copy to re-read it. Or maybe I'll get that fancy new hardcover that is coming out...

EDIT: Just a quick update. I just sold my last copy of Watchmen at 6:45pm.

Infrequent Customers

I just want to express my love of the infrequent customer, that guy who you see maybe monthly, but usually not even that often. Now, this is not to say anything bad about my regulars, the guys who come in every Wednesday or whatever day they always come in on. Those are the guys who keep the doors open. I look forward to talking with them every week.

However, the infrequent customer is like finding money in a jacket pocket. I count on the weekly guys, but the random guys are real treat. They come in and get months worth of books at a time. Or they clear out a overgrown subscriber folder.

Yet another name change

Well, I decided to go with a name that made more sense. This name actually goes back to the beginning. This was my original name that I filed with the state of PA, way back in 1993, when I started doing conventions in anticipation of opening an actual store. It only took me 13 years, but I did it!

I know blogging about blogging is a sin, per Mike Sterling, so I will not belabor the point. My wife was looking at a customers blog and asked me if I had one. I said yes, but I don't do much. My customer does his much more and she said I had no reason not to throw something up every day. So, now, with no excuses, I will.

More to come later when I get some stuff finished around the store.

Sorry For the Distraction

I apologize to anyone coming into the store the next couple weeks, well, and last week. I am trying to do some stuff and my head is not where it should be.

It all started Wednesday when the books showed up 3 hours late. Never a good thing and kills the rest of the day for me as it is a scramble to get the books out and sorted with customers standing there as every book comes out of the box. And I didn't have time to get the bar codes into the system. Very frustrating.

Thursday morning, I ran to Ikea to get 6 more bookshelves. I have run out of space for trades and the last few weeks worth are just stacked on top of the back issue rack. My initial plan was to have a rack for new DC, Marvel and Other Publisher trades, so that the new ones would be displayed face out and be seen and sell better. Well, those racks are full. And the new ones just get dumped in front of the other ones. Good for the new, bad for the old. The indy rack is now 5-6 trades deep, which makes it impossible to find anything. And there is no organization at all. Frustrating to the customer and to me. I have 4 books cases for the trades when they move off of the racks, but that was full as well, so things just began to stack up. I bought 6 more with the hope of making more of a display in the front of the store. All of the big sellers, like Vertigo, in one place. Plus a rack just for the new arrivals, like at the big books stores. And then I can use the racks to spotlight titles, like Batman or Spider-Man. I am mostly looking for a better way to merchandise. A big part it was the Marvel Essentials. I love them. I keep them all in stock. But I only sell 1 or 2 a month. They used to have a whole big rack. Then I moved them to the book cases, but they took up the whole book case. When I got the new bigger kids rack, I moved the Essntials to the old kids rack. But I was still spending a whole lot of floor space on something that really doesn't move well. That was part of the reason for making the change as well. Now they have their own out of the way book case.

So all day Thursday was spent trying to get these new bookcases built. I was only able to get 3 of the 6 made. It didn't help that I forgot a screwdriver and was using the Swiss Army knife.

Friday was 4th of July and I was closed.

Saturday morning I finished getting the books cases built. I then spent quite a bit of time finding a place for them. The fact that the store is not square, makes thing like this a little challenging. I like the odd shape, but it does create problems. So I finally got them where they will work. Rather than a square, they are a rectangle. I was hoping for a square with the side of the one on the left next to the book case you were facing, so I could put a little sign as to what was in the book case or whatever.

The other thing I did was replace the 4 foot front display table with a 5 footer. The two 8 foot tables with some of the back issues on them are 5 feet back to back, so this just made sense. I also replace the back 8 foot table with a 5 foot one. This table was only there while I sorted a collections, but it soon became part of the store. But it also stuck out 3 feet, so it never really fit. Replacing it with the 5 foot looks better. But it also cost me 4 boxes on display and the storage underneath. I kind of got everything tidied up Saturday night. We'll see how tidy tomorrow morning.

Oh, and in the midst of having the store disorganized, a customer brought in 2 life size stuffed Spider-Men. He won them at a fair or something and had no room at home. With no back room, I don't have any place for them either. For fun and to get them out of the way, now have them hanging from the ceiling. I will take pictures when I get everything straightened up.

Then I got busy the rest of the day, so I didn't even fill the book cases up. Then I was off Sunday and closed Monday. I just feel very disconnected from the store right now. Which may not be a bad thing only because of the changes, it feels different to me right now. I need to freshen it up.

This week, I will have Tuesday and Wednesday to get everything organized. Hopefully, I can get it all done. New books won't be here until Thursday, so I get an extra day to get ready.

But then more disconnect for me. We are taking a family vacation Friday through Tuesday. So, not only will I not be at the store, but I will be getting back on Wednesday morning, just in time for the new order. Getting the store ready for new books is about a 2 hour process. Moving the new books around to make space for new titles and replacing and adding the new signs. Not rocket science, but time consuming. Maybe I can leave the task for Matt on Sunday. But Wednesday is still going to feel a little odd.

So, please cut me a little bit of slack these next two weeks. I may forget that you asked for a specific book or forget to track down something. Don't take it personally. I just have a lot going on.