Thought this was worth posting: Want to keep LCS in business? Pick up your stuff 1 1

[Kevin76]

98% of the LCS owners aren't business men. They pick terrible locations for their stores, Store is really messy and has bad lighting. When was the last time you saw an employee vacuum the rugs? They don't know how to merchandise their product, don't know how to organize the store to optimum sales and run very little, if any sales. Most comic stores I've walked into looks like a glorified teenagers' bedroom. Owners and employees are very lazy, most don't have an online store. If you own a comic store, you need to learn how to retail as well as have a web presence and know to how to clean. I don't feel bad for any LCS that shuts down, if you don't know how to run a store in this day and age you shouldn't have one.

[Artboy99]

My experience here in my home town with the LCS is that they are all operated differently.

 

I LIKE when a LCS puts a related book or a tie in or something they think I might like into my file. I am under no obligation to purchase, but I like having the chance and more often than not I make the buy not only because I like the book but to support my LCS.

 

What I really hate is not getting the books on my pull list. It happens so often that I find I am always going to the LCS every new comic day in an effort to get what I want.

 

I stopped going to a LCS I had been a customer of for 20+ years because they couldn't do a good enough job of getting me my pull list. If I am ordering Thor, I expect to get all of them not 5 books of a 24 book run. ( yes that really happened! )

 

The last time I had a pull list was during the Captain America #25 craze. That book mysteriously did not make it into my box despite being on my list. And this was not the first hot book to not make it into my box. Once that happened, I closed my box and bought my books weekly off the stands for a short while until I started getting my books from DCBS. I've never looked back. And the LCS has since folded.

 

The exact same thing happened to me during the Cap 25 craze. Went to pick up my file and my Cap 25 was not in the file. The reason I was given was that they were shorted on the order. I notice up on the wall behind the cash register counter a copy of Cap 25 with a $100 price tag.

 

I decide to buy the books from my file and I tell the guy I will also take the cap 25 hanging on the wall. He proceeds to input the $100 price, I tell him I will pay cover price for the book that should be in my file.

He says that copy was one ordered for the store to sell.

 

I closed my file on the spot. So did the guy behind me who also didn't get his copy of Cap 25. I have never bought a comic at that store since. Unfortunately they are still open.

[Ken Aldred]

+1

 

I agree with the thread title, except in this one situation ; where the owner omitted books from your pull list / standing orders because they were hot issues and ‘someone came in and bought up most of the copies’, and then acts completely indifferent to the consequences of that decision.

 

It breeds indifference in me, as well.

[wombat]

Set rules. Books must be picked up at least "fill in whatever the LCS wants". If that doesn't happen, you are off the pull list. LCS will have zero repeat offenders.

[Psithyrus]

Set rules. Books must be picked up at least "fill in whatever the LCS wants". If that doesn't happen, you are off the pull list. LCS will have zero repeat offenders.

 

We would sign off on them charging our credit cards, if we didn't pick them up within a few months.

[VintageComics]

GAIL SIMONE: IF YOU LIKE YOUR COMIC SHOP, PLEASE Help Them Stay Open'

[kav]

1 hour ago, VintageComics said:

GAIL SIMONE: IF YOU LIKE YOUR COMIC SHOP, PLEASE Help Them Stay Open'

Vintage what did you do to search and find this old thread?  I haven't found any way to search old threads.

Edited February 23, 2017 by kav
typeo

[nochips]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 11:55 PM, AKA Rick said:

Here's a solution... auto bill.

 

What shop owners should do is, by giving customers discounts and guaranteed rights to books that subsequently sell out, have an agreement that every Wednesday, the comics pulled are then automatically charged to that customer's credit card on file.

 

I've seen many friends who are somewhat ill-respectfully negligent customers, have books held for 3-6 months at a LCS, and brag about picking up books that are worth 10x the cover price and then proceed to grab their stacks as if the pull list was an option to buy, and put back comics they changed their mind on buying. To me, that's pretty lame customer behavior.

 

I think, charging the credit card motivates the customer to come pick their stuff up, since it's paid for. Also, as part of the system, the store should be obligated to try their best to get the top condition comics, yet of course not guarantee anything since it's out of their control what they receive. I know at times, some fans want to pick their own comics... well if they want, just drop by the store on the Wed the comics comes in and they're automatically billed and pick the conditions they want if what was pulled for them isn't to their standards.

 

It's not a negative option continuity, it's, to me perfectly straightforward. If a customer doesn't have a credit card, then they need to put down a cash reserve to draw against, it should be store policy, then they don't have to worry about delinquent customers and deadbeats.

Collect $ when ordering. My dry cleaner works on the same principle. I pay ahead, if I don't come back, no loss for him, he was already paid for the work.

[VintageComics]

3 minutes ago, kav said:

Vintage what did you do to search and find this old thread?  I haven't found any way to search old threads.

I just searched my old topics.

[kav]

2 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

I just searched my old topics.

Apparently there's no way to search the new forum which means we cannot access old topics and this really sucks.

[VintageComics]

2 minutes ago, kav said:

6 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

I just searched my old topics.

Apparently there's no way to search the new forum which means we cannot access old topics and this really sucks.

Just carefully go through all of the search options in the advance search section. I've made it work.

[kav]

1 minute ago, VintageComics said:

Just carefully go through all of the search options in the advance search section. I've made it work.

where is the search function?

[BlowUpTheMoon]

[VintageComics]

1 minute ago, kav said:

2 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

Just carefully go through all of the search options in the advance search section. I've made it work.

where is the search function?

Click on the Magnifying glass at the top right of the forum. That opens up the search function for me.

[kav]

2 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

Click on the Magnifying glass at the top right of the forum. That opens up the search function for me.

BINGO

[VintageComics]

Just now, kav said:

3 minutes ago, VintageComics said:

Click on the Magnifying glass at the top right of the forum. That opens up the search function for me.

BINGO

If you don't choose the right options the search doesn't work. It's a little confusing until you get used to it. Enjoy!

[kav]

Just now, VintageComics said:

If you don't choose the right options the search doesn't work. It's a little confusing until you get used to it. Enjoy!

thx.  it seems to work great without selecting any options so far

[nocutename]

I am going to resurrect this thread.  One of the guys from my old comic shop that closed started doing podcast.  He is up to season 3 and interviewed the owners of Pack Rat.  It was an interesting listen to and they did address why they don't collect credit cards or ask for deposits. 

 

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/flatsquirrelproductions/episodes/2017-07-04T15_43_32-07_00

[tv horror]

On 15/01/2017 at 3:50 PM, Artboy99 said:

 

The exact same thing happened to me during the Cap 25 craze. Went to pick up my file and my Cap 25 was not in the file. The reason I was given was that they were shorted on the order. I notice up on the wall behind the cash register counter a copy of Cap 25 with a $100 price tag.

 

I decide to buy the books from my file and I tell the guy I will also take the cap 25 hanging on the wall. He proceeds to input the $100 price, I tell him I will pay cover price for the book that should be in my file.

He says that copy was one ordered for the store to sell.

 

I closed my file on the spot. So did the guy behind me who also didn't get his copy of Cap 25. I have never bought a comic at that store since. Unfortunately they are still open.

The very same thing happened to my Cap 25 I had been with the shop for 20 years and was collecting the Civil war collection of titles and Boom everything but was in my box. I closed my account but not before writing a letter to the owner telling him how loyal I was as a customer when I could have been using a cheaper service and this was the way I was treated. He personally apologised and gave me both my copy plus the variant for cover price, the teller at the time just shrugged his shoulders at me closing my account as it did not matter to him. The laugh is he thinks that HE is going to run the shop one day, which he might do for a week no longer as he is witless.  

[Brian48]

This is why I've never kept a pull list even back in the day when I was still heavily collecting.  If I can't guarantee I can come and pick up my stuff, I don't inconvenience others by ordering it.