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I'm opening up a brick and mortar this year and want some advice!!
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Started by Genesis Comics,

725 posts in this topic

ChiSoxFan

ChiSoxFan

Posted
Posted

Good luck on the opening!  As everyone has pointed out already. the store looks sharp, bright, clean, and organized.  So many shops I've visted over the years can't get those details right, but you've nailed a very professional look to your store that should hopefully make you stand out.  Great job, and a heck of an effort to get done what you did in such a short period of time! (worship)

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Genesis Comics

Genesis Comics

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Hey folks...still here at the shop, doing some organizing..."closed" at 8 but still had some kids playing MTG until 9...all good as I had a ton of stuff to do.  Recap of the Grand Opening and the first 4 days!!  The good, the not good, and the Ugly...

The good:

1) Great sales over the weekend...more than I anticipated...I did over 3K on opening day...think is was around 3200...I wrote it down somewhere lol (I did have some friends and family come down and buy some stuff they normally wouldn't have...one sale was 700+).  Probably 1/2 of the total was friends and family, but that means another 1500+ was people coming in!  I did another 1500+ on Sunday which was just as busy, but not as good with sales.  Monday was just under 500 and today was just under 400...much more than I had expected honestly...very happy so far!

2) Sunday's Cosplayer's that I hired (Green Arrow, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy) were fantastic!  Awesome job interacting, taking pictures...Harley was the star of the show!  Mr Popintwist, a balloon ARTIST was phenomenal as well.   All of them posted and shared all week on social media about the grand opening and their appearances. I have them all booked again for Halloween Comic Fest on October 28th.  We did a kids costume contest on Sunday...had about 10 participants overall...not sure if my wife posted the pics on facebook.  Each kid that participated got $5 credit and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners got an additional $25, $20, $15.  A lot of fun and doing it again on Halloween Comic fest...hoping for more participants, which I don't think will be a problem!

3) My helper/employee Jason was a rock!!  Great job by him on all aspects, customer interaction, new computer issues, salesmanship...his MTG knowledge is incredible!  He knows nothing about comics lol, but that's what I'm here for lol.  He will learn eventually.  My wife and kids and brother were an incredible help leading up to and including opening weekend...could not have done this without them.  Had a lot of friends and family helping out to make the short turn around a reality!!

4) Got a lot of great feedback, things like, "just what this town needed", "so happy there is a comic store here", "place looks great", "my friends and I are going to play (insert TCG game) here now" + so many more!  Lot's of great facebook reviews too...the early ones were my family trying to be helpful lol probably the first 6 or 7...but after that they were "legitimate" reviews...I'll get to one in particular in the "ugly" section...

5) Lot's of traffic...street is very busy and lot's of people coming in and out of the pizza and chinese food places I'm between...plus the pizza and chinese are awesome!  Also a mexican place which was also very good next to the chinese place!  They both said it's "slow" right now, so that's a good sign!

6) Brought in plush, mini-figures, and prints from local artist JaCo Tartaruga...all sold very well!!  

7) Had 1 comic collection come in on Sunday...big books were NYX 3 and ASM 300 and ASM 361 (NYX and ASM 361 are NM...the 300 is lower grade VG/F....lot's of decent copper stuff $5-$25 books...McFarlane ASM's, last issues of Transformers, Conan, and Platt's MoonKnight etc.  Also had another guy send me over a list of comics he's selling...lot's of decent copper stuff as well...at least 100+ books that retail for $10 or more and some nice copper runs of books that I am short on (left the list at home, but multiple ASM 252, Wolvie 1 limited, and a New Teen Titans 2, Rocket Limited Series, Hulk 340...he's bringing by this week...nothing to make me rich, but some nice books...

8) Already have a group of 6 gamers that have been here the last 3 nights, they had 2 more join them today...so that's definitely a good start...especially since they are spending $$

There are so many more good things about the opening...but it's late and I have to work a few more days in a row lmfao

The not good:

1) The comicsuite POS system did not arrive until Wednesday, which gave me Wednesday to hook it up.  I had a 3 hour training call on Thurs and a 5 hour training call on Friday (we had multiple hardware issues including the receipt printer not working).  This was very frustrating as I had sooooooooooooooooooooooo  much to do, but had to sit and listen to the training about things that weren't necessarily important...don't get me wrong, they were important, but maybe not necessary for the "grand opening".  For example, I didn't need to learn how to suspend someones account...I don't think that will be an issue in the first week.

 

2) I STILL have not received my trade paperbacks from Diamond...when I asked, I was told I should have taken advantage of the "deals" they had at sign up...I explained that I did and that I had sent my order in..."oh...there it is"...sucks but it is what it is...they are on the way now...

3) With everything going on leading up to the opening, I figured I'd be able to have my comic stock priced and ready to go...I just managed my time inefficiently and was not able to get everything done that I wanted, and my bins were not as full as they could have been...there were a few empty rows...in retrospect, I should have combined all the bins to one side and had the other bins be $1.00 bins...but I had $1 boxes outside and didn't want to confuse people as to pricing...

4) New comic sales are slower than anticipated...as mentioned above, I dropped the ball on that...I've been running 25% off new comics since Saturday and will continue through the weekend to try to move stock, including for the new comics tomorrow.  Still a decent margin as beginning stores get 57 percent off the first few months...my discount will go down sooner rather than later so I need to adjust quickly and get people signed up for the comic club

The Ugly:

1) Just one here...on grand opening day I got a bad facebook review...1 out of 5 stars...here it is for the world to see:

"Was so super happy to see a place like this open up in town.Im a huge comic book fan! But this was a big let down,very sad. I was heart broken when all the comic book stores i grew up with closed down.Even more sad to see comic books go online instead of being held,read,and collected.The one in holtsville very sad place,the one in selden way over priced.And now Genesis comics and gaming =( So small almost no inventory,bobble heads you can get at hot topic,old comics priced at $15 when you can go to ebay,or Savers thrift store and pay $2 for the same comic.Then tables in the back for gamers,an idea i love,but the place is way way to small.A hand full of people inside talking took up all the room in the place.But loved the ghost busters outside.Just wish there was a large comic book store in our area,one that caters to comic nuts,gaming nuts,and tons of cosplay folks.Also one that has action figures,and comic/ Sci fi art from local artists.My heart is sad i dont see Genesis lasting long.But still happy they are here for now,hope im wrong,i hope they grow big.This town needs a place like they have opened"

First off, I will agree, that the inventory levels were not where they were supposed to be or where I wanted them to be...so I can understand his opinion on that...but c'mon man, it's the first day

Now onto the other stuff he mentioned...

1) Bobble heads you can get at Hot Topic-not true...I had a TOTAL of 21 POP figures, which I am assuming he was talking about...19 Previews exclusives (unless Hot Topic get's theirs from Diamond, which they probably don't...but you never know) and 2 Bob Ross POP's...that's it for POP's...

2) Old comics priced at $15 that you can get on eBay for $2.00...I looked around and didn't see anything...not sure what he's talking about...I had some copper stuff that has gotten "hot" in this area at least on the walls (inlcuding Venom 1, and Spider-Man 3 that my LCS gets 10 and 15 for all day)...maybe he's not up to date on what's happening in the comic world...OR, maybe I haven't adjusted to a downward trend...

3) Local Artists represented/sci/fi artists etc...this one pissed me off...not only did I have a nice display of Frank Frazetta prints/posters from 1979/1980...I also had 10 med/large prints from a local artist JaCo Tartartuga lined up along the wall over the comic bins and below the wall books...he couldn't make it down for the grand opening due to other obligations, but he will be here soon...Saturday was ALSO Inbeoncon (a local con for local artists and cosplayers) so anyone local WAS NOT AVAILABLE because they were there!!! Billy Tucci who I had wanted to get was on vacation.  

4) He also complained about people standing in the back taking up the room for the gamers...first off, it's grand opening...I don't have any people to have any events yet...the tables were being used by friends and family to stay out of the way of the guests coming in  as well as a lunch area for the cosplayers...really dude?!?!  

After an amazing day, this brought me down a bit...BUT...the next day I had 1 guest who I do not know comment under his comment saiying nice things...that was very nice to see...also 2 guests came in, one Sunday and one Monday who were both here on Saturday and mentioned the comment and how they thought it was ridiculous...

Now, all he does is comment, and like and share stuff that we post or other people post...weird...

So in conclusion...I'm tired!!! lol

Lot's of long days and many more to come, but it's getting a little better and a little more organized every day...still having sales all this week on comics/gaming/other, so follow me on facebook to see what's going on!

Someone asked above about the bookshelf/comic bin...love it!  One "issue" I had was the bookshelf I had purchased (already assembled) had a middle shelf built in...this caused the "bins" to be wider than I wanted...all I need to do is add another shelf to double up and it will be fine...total cost for what amounts to 3 + comic bins was about 525 with hardware and extra shelves...would have cost me almost 2K for "new" comic bins so very much worth it!

Heading home to get some sleep so I can do it again tomorrow!!  

Thank you all for all the great feedback, all the well wishes and all the "look's great" comments!  I really do appreciate them and they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...or is that just the the lack of sleep...hmm...but I like it anyway!!!  LMFAO!

Goodnight and I'll keep updating about my journey, ups and downs, etc...

 

 

Edited by Genesis Comics
Forgot something "good"
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shadroch

shadroch

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Posted

Don't let the bastards get you down.

You can't make everyone happy, and trying to is an exercise in futility.

Someone gave you a bad review on Facebook. So what. You have your dream, and they have what? Don't be the guy who has to try and explain away every bad comment you receive.

Take to heart the ones that are correct and fixable, and Roll with the rest.

 

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Mapleleafvann

Mapleleafvann

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I agree.  All you can do is consistently treat people in a courteous and respectful manner and try to be "their" comic and gaming merchant.  You will never please everyone, but if customers are consistently treated well, you will do just fine.   

You managed to get the "bad" review out of the way---good stuff!  Every one gets one, has one or will get one......just ignore this review as clearly many others have already.

Onward and upward---congrats!

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F For Fake

F For Fake

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Agreed. I mean, I wasn't there or anything, but the pics show a very impressive set up for a grand opening, and it seems like you have your ducks in a row. You can't make everyone happy, so just keep doing what you're doing.

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thehumantorch

thehumantorch

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Sounds like you've done very well so far.  Congratulations.  

Don't get upset about the review, negative feedback is more important than positive feedback.  Consider everything he said, there's probably something he didn't like that you can improve on and make your store better.  Make it constructive feedback rather than negative.

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Westy Steve

Westy Steve

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Funny thing about your complaint was that he was complaining about how things in the past were better and what he'd like on the future.  So his complaints had more to do with the way things are in general than your store.  That would be a decent reply to him...."I'm sorry that the industry has moved away from what you remember, but we're trying to bring that kind of thing back".  I think you should welcome the complaint so that you can learn from it...I mean, I want people to tell me I have a bad haircut instead of saying "you look nice" to make me feel good, as this would give me something to improve on.

Here's a recommendation.  I saw this happen to a few new shops.  A lot of your early comic book sales are going to be people cherry picking every perceived bargain.  Once that initial burst of sales is over (which you are experiencing now), your stock will consistently be of an average value because all the good buys will be gone and all the better books will have been purchased.  Seems that the stores that survive pay more for the better books, less for the less interesting books, and price them the same way.  If you buy a key, price it like the "buy it now" prices on ebay (which can be slightly "dreamy").  But blow out the common stuff.  It's the better material that will attract the real collectors to your store and they either want bargains on the common stuff or will pay higher prices on the nice material if they can hold it in their hands and don't have to take the risk of buying it off ebay.  What you don't want is collectors like me thinking to themselves "nah, I don't want to go to that shop today because they never have anything good".  Besides, if you price your better material at higher prices, you can use it like money in the bank and sell it quickly in a fiscal emergency just by having a sale.

 

Steve

Edited by Westy Steve
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SteppinRazor

SteppinRazor

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On 8/30/2017 at 3:56 PM, thirdgreenham said:

I like how he's so sad that comic dealers are going online, and then he suggests going online to buy comics from eBay. doh! 

Yep.  None of his complaints seem to be logical.  One star because he wishes there was a giant perfect store?  The ratings aren't supposed to be relative to how close a store matches your dreams, they are supposed to rate what the store brings - goods, service, interaction, availability, price.  'I wish a massive store sold stuff for cheaper than a dude on the innernet catered to all kinds of interests but those people never crowd it was walking distance from my house'.  Yah ok.

I think if people read the one star review, they won't see anything in his contradictory complaint that would turn them off.  He sounds like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person.  And I don't think we're biased in that opinion

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