Is diversity hurting comic stores?

[shadroch]

I'm starting to notice a trend of seeing comicbook stores devoting less and less space to comics and more space o other items. I'm wondering if this is a good idea.

When I opened my first store,Quest End, in the early 80s, all I sold was comics. Newcomics and old comics. Thats it. When you walked thru my door I knew you were there to buy comics. Slowly, as time went on, I bought in other items, comic supplies,posters,D+D, baseball cards. But I always made sure the emphisis was on comics. I was a comic store owner and I sold comics.

Today you walk into most stores and they have everything from the latest Japanese cards to models to autographed sports memarobilia to god knows what else.Someone walks in with a twenty dollar bill and the choices are overwheming.Perhaps too much. Any thoughts?

 

[BachelorOfComix]

I think comic stores nowadays need to diversify just to survive.

[shadroch]

I think comic stores nowadays need to diversify just to survive.

 

That is the conventional thinking,but I'm not sure it is correct.For example-you walk into a store and it has 25-30 statues for sale,a couple of cases of DC direct figures, ect,ect. That is a whole lot of cash to be laid out in advance of you bringing in dollar one. I was in a store in Queens last week and figured they must have had close to 40k in mechandise,not counting new or backissue comics.To keep this up thru the course of a year means having close to 100K in capital for backup purposes. You need to have a crystal ball to predict trends and more importantly to predict the ends of trends.

[chrisfuccione]

This comes from a coin colector and a sometimes comic book reader. I am thinking of a comic book store in Reading MA when you mention this. They carry videosYes I have about 200). Cds ( I will buy Beatles CD if I don't own them), action figues(I don't collect them But I picked up A DEATH one a few years back on impulse).They also have magic and other trading cards in addition to comic books. Is it a "comic" book store? Yes their main focus is comic books. Would they able to stay in business if that is all they sold? I don't think so. This is no longer the boom period of the 80's where it seems that there was a comic book stor on every corner. Because comic book collecting is on a downturn for many reasons, the economy sucks and not a lot of dispoable income, no investment buying( I remeber buying many copies of X-FORCE 1 and X-MEN1 because I thought I would make a killing on them) to the internet. A lot of the stores have gone under. The other ones have had to carry other items to attract new customers and help pay the rent.

 

I am not saying this to bad mouth the comic books stores because the same thing is going on over at the coin side. Unless you have internet pressence or carry other items the chances of them surving will not be good. On the coin side I have another example A store in Boston MA J.J. Teaparty has a great reputation but a few years back they had to cut their store in half and started selling baseball cards on the other side to stay in business. Do you think that a coin or comic book store can stay around for long with the business we bring in? CHRIS

[shadroch]

My thinking is in the direction of this-If all the store sold was comic related,1) They would have far fewer accounts payable,freeing up cash 2) They should be able to provide better customer service as they would be experts on the far fewer items they would carry.3) They would be able to display their back issues much mor promintly, which should cause a rise in sales.4)Relieved of the stress and time of trying to predict how many diverse items will sell three months down the line, they would be able to have a much larger internet presence and be able to move more backstock.

Many items stores sell these days have only a 25% markup so if you sell 8 out of 10 of the item you are barely breaking even.

It would involve something new to many storowners-salesmanship.I'm sorry but when someone walks in to pickup the latest Superman,how hard is it to sell them one of the 800 issues that preceded this months.

It just seems to me that many of these stores have overexpanded and are cannibalizing themselves unknowingly.

[delekkerste]

As a comic and comic art collector, I could care less about all the extraneous stuff comic shops sell, but I do believe they are necessary to keep them in business. The hobby has been declining for the last decade...I think Mile High Chuck has often quoted in his CBG column that something like 80-90% of comic stores have gone out of business in the last 10 years (though that number is somewhat inflated as comic speculators in the early 1990s were buying comics directly from the distributor and were counted as comic shops, or so Chuck has said).

 

Managing your working capital prudently is one thing, but in a secularly declining, competitive industry, you don't want to give up revenue or market share. There are 5 comic shops within easy walking distance of where I live...if any of those shops gave up selling peripheral items, they would lose business to the others. My local shop has been struggling mightily lately, and they are trying to work their working capital to the fullest, but they know it would be suicidal to stop stocking non-comic items. I don't think there is much incremental training or labor needed to sell the extra items anyway and don't think the marginal revenue gained from pushing back issues would even come close to offsetting lost revenue from other items.

 

Gene

[Kevin Boyd]

I'm surprised to hear that people are just noticing this trend as comic shops have been diversifying since the crash of the early 1990's. In fact, I think you would be hard pressed to find any comic shop that makes it's money on ONLY comics.

 

Most have been selling action figures, toys, Collectible Card Games - in particular Magic the Gathering, but also Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! to make up for lost revenues due to poor comics sales since, say, 1995-6..

 

On the other hand, the stores that I know here in Toronto have had steady improvements in new issue comics sales over the last 4 years and that those new issue sales make up a much larger portion of their monthly sales then they did between 1995 and 1999. Also a large volume of monthly sales come from graphic novels, hardcovers and trade paperbacks (including Manga tpbs) - those items were merely peripheral items a mere decade ago.

 

Kev

[shiverbones]

the trouble for the lcoal shop is also inability to restock back issues any more. Most shops inventory consist of 1990 on. That keeps back issue collectors from frequenting the shop to buy not only back issues, but supplies, new books & whatever else.

[Foolkiller]

I agree with the primary statement that comic stores must diversify their inventory in order to remain competitive, to a certain extent. However, some stores become so overrun with trends and fads, they forget that their main customer base should and is comic collectors. Although there is a need to diversify product, there is no need to allow your store to become overrun with Magic, Pokemon, toys etc.

 

Dewey's Comic City in Madison NJ followed a different model. I had been going to that store for about 7 years or so and now stay in touch with the owner who is a personal friend. About 3 years ago, he realized that operating a new comics/back issue store was no longer the way to go. He shifted the focus of the store to carry the following things: primarily trade paperbacks, new comics and some related merchandise. He took the back issues out of his store, since they weren't really providing enough percentage of income, and used the space for other things. Now... he kept a list updated for a while on his website and in his store, that if you filled out a card requesting back issues, he'd pull them... and lately he's kept some "hot" or more popular back issues in the store. The big change was to have weekly Magic tournaments and other store "events", plus run sales weekly on certain items to generate interest. He doesn't sell Magic card singles, only in packages, but because of the area, kids will go to his store on a friday night and play. It gives them somewhere to go, and generates a lot of extra income for the store.

 

Plus, he's noticed that trade sales are way up as he stocks just about every trade in print, and tries to keep them stocked when they sell out. The store isn't huge, but the utilization of space is excellent.

 

This is an alternative to what I saw some stores do a few years ago selling Magic singles and Baseball cards etc. To give a contrast, about 6 or 7 years ago, there was a store in my area called Star Spangled Comics and it had pretty much every back issue under the sun. It regularly ran ads in CBG and was a huge store. But eventually, because of the 90s flop, they went out of business. They could have stayed around, if their staff was nicer to the customers, and if they hadn't abandoned comics for Magic. The customers that went there were loyal, but when the Star Spangled neglected them, stopped getting new books regularly, it was all over. They eventually went out of business because of a neglect for their customers. So it's a fine line you have to walk...

 

 

[Kevin Boyd]

the trouble for the lcoal shop is also inability to restock back issues any more. Most shops inventory consist of 1990 on. That keeps back issue collectors from frequenting the shop to buy not only back issues, but supplies, new books & whatever else.

 

I couldn't disagree more. If the store really wanted to restock with back issue material pre-1990 there are ways to do this, aside from the most obvious, which is to advertize that you are buying collections.

 

For example, I know many local store owners that wait until convention season and then stock up on books at dealer tables where the books are heavily discounted for an easy sale.

 

I don't have a store of my own, but when I sell my books at local shows I get all sorts of requests from store owners who have "want" lists to fill for their back issue bins at the store.

 

Last March I met a fellow in Montreal who makes a living hunting down back stock for a number of Montreal-based comic shops. They give him a list of books that they want in stock and he seeks them out. And I'm not just talking about Spider-Man and X-Men issues, but runs of 1980's and 1990's Superman comics (not Byrne), later Justice League International/Task Force/Europe, Firestorm, Guy Gardner, things that I would consider to be unsellable and heavily discount on.

 

Store owners could also buy comic lots on e-bay. I see people selling all sorts of lots of books for cheap prices - and it's very hard NOT to find particular issues of most titles over a space of a month online.

 

The problem really is that most comic shops were used to having books walk in off the street on a regular basis and pay next to nothing for them. Now that it's a little harder they can either sit back and complain about the lack of back stock or they can actually work to keep those bins stocked by seeking out the material.

 

In my mind it's a question of proactivity over inactivity.

 

I understand that proactivity isn't always profitable for some store owners, they are busy enough as is, hence the diversification towards current fads and not back issue comics.

[lighthouse]

As a "brick-and-mortar" store owner, I have chimed in on many of these threads, if for no other reason than to remind people I own a "brick-and-mortar" store... ... Oh, and to appease Darth, who loves to hear me say that...

 

It would be tantamount to suicide to run a comics-only shop at this point. Comic shops aren't really "comic shops" anymore and haven't been for some time. They are "pop culture retailers"... The customer base that comes into a comic shop today is looking for stuff to entertain them and stuff their friends will think is cool. They don't have a long personal history with comic books, so the only way to convince them to come in is to provide them with other cool stuff to buy...

 

I did a terribly long post about the costs associated with carrying back issues several months back (which Bugaboo did a great job parodying in my roast). Because of the increases in rent, it is not cost-effective to display many back issues that are priced under $3. But the only way to get people to spend time looking at your $20 back issues (which ARE cost-effective to display) is to have those $3 as well. You just don't get enough inventory turns from the lower-priced back issues to devote the bulk of your floor space to them.

 

So by taking 12sf that used to be comics and setting up t-shirts there instead, the shop owner will see a better bottom line. The margins are tighter on apparel, but the inventory turns are dramatically better... Same thing with statues, same thing with CCG's... Toys are an iffy proposition, since Wal-Mart has 90% of all the toys a comic shop can get, and sells them at prices within 5% of what a comic shop pays Diamond. Some stores do very well with toys, many do not...

 

Someone walks in with a twenty dollar bill and the choices are overwheming.

 

The goal in pop culture retailing now is to get as many people with twenty dollar bills into the shop in the first place... There are a lot more entertainment choices out there now compared to 15 years ago. Role playing games are stronger and more diverse than in the mid-80's. CCG's didn't exist back then. Video games have gone from a diversion to a lifestyle. Whether a comic shop carries these items or not, they certainly have to compete with them...

 

You mention that shops may have too many accounts payable by carrying too many product lines... That's one way to look at it... But, because I have a store, I have an opportunity to open wholesale accounts with a wide variety of distributors that I never could as a hobbyist. I can get boxes of Magic for $58 a piece. I can get DVD's at prices below what Wal-Mart charges. I can get cool t-shirts at $11 each... It all comes back to inventory turns, but if I can sell the same three boxes of Magic out of 1 square foot of counter space, and turn them 21 times a year at a margin of $41 a box, why wouldn't I carry Magic in my store? Why would I turn down $2583 a year in gross margin that costs me $15 in rent and an investment of $174?

 

Not every secondary product line is a cash cow like Magic... but many of them out-perform back issues... and despite the stereotypes, most comic shop owners know what's making them money and what isn't...

[joe_collector]

The problem really is that most comic shops were used to having books walk in off the street on a regular basis and pay next to nothing for them.

 

Kev, that was the comic book store's main business strategy from the 1970's til EBay. Big fat guy sits on stool, offers $10 for stack of Silver Age, rinse and repeat.

[shadroch]

Lighthouse,

My question to you would be this.

Say you sell 100 tshirts year of Spidey at $20 a pop,grossing 2k and netting you$500. Are you sure this 2k you netted would not have been spent elsewhere in your store on items that cost you less? Everyone seems to feel that backssues are deadwood, but accepting the fact that the only reason you have them was because a mistake was made in ordering too many, these books,having been paid for by the new books dept. are now nothing but free and clear profit. There is no markup on backissues that are remainders from new issue sales. All you need to sell is 550 dollars in books to clear more than you did selling the 100 tshirts and you never had to lay out the $1500 investment on the shirts to begin with.

Wold store rvenues fall doing this? Hell Yes

Would profits fall doing this? Don't know

Gone are the days when you could lose money on every sale but make it up on the volume.

[lighthouse]

The problem really is that most comic shops were used to having books walk in off the street on a regular basis and pay next to nothing for them.

 

Kev, that was the comic book store's main business strategy from the 1970's til EBay. Big fat guy sits on stool, offers $10 for stack of Silver Age, rinse and repeat.

 

I'll go with every word of that statement except "rinse"...

[joe_collector]

Kev, that was the comic book store's main business strategy from the 1970's til EBay. Big fat guy sits on stool, offers $10 for stack of Silver Age, rinse and repeat.

 

I'll go with every word of that statement except "rinse"...

 

Worst Fat Comic Store Owner Joke EVER!!!

[lighthouse]

Lighthouse,

My question to you would be this.

Say you sell 100 tshirts year of Spidey at $20 a pop,grossing 2k and netting you$500. Are you sure this 2k you netted would not have been spent elsewhere in your store on items that cost you less? Everyone seems to feel that backssues are deadwood, but accepting the fact that the only reason you have them was because a mistake was made in ordering too many, these books,having been paid for by the new books dept. are now nothing but free and clear profit. There is no markup on backissues that are remainders from new issue sales. All you need to sell is 550 dollars in books to clear more than you did selling the 100 tshirts and you never had to lay out the $1500 investment on the shirts to begin with.

Wold store rvenues fall doing this? Hell Yes

Would profits fall doing this? Don't know

Gone are the days when you could lose money on every sale but make it up on the volume.

 

I assume you were typing this quickly, so I will answer what I think you were asking rather than address the typos ("2k you netted")...

 

The fact that I sell 100 Spidey t-shirts in a year doesn't mean I have 100 in inventory at any one time... Inventory turns on t-shirts average around 18 per year. So my model stock for t-shirts is around 3 weeks worth of sales. To sell 100 Spidey t-shirts during a year, I am keeping 6 in stock, and replacing them as they sell. My margin is actually better than the 25% you quote above (not a lot better but it's around 29%). But even going with your data ($20 per sale, $15 cost) I have $90 invested and see profits of $500 per year on that investment...

 

The question isn't "Could I have done better with the $1500 I spent on t-shirts during the year?" The question is "Could I have done better with the $90 I have invested in t-shirts?"

 

I am most definitely not in the camp that back issues are deadwood. At the time I moved from Texas, my shop was in the top 40 back issue stores in the country. And if I had enough square footage in my current location I would be pushing that status here as well. They may be deadwood for many stores, but not for mine...

 

My ordering mistakes do not wind up on my back issue tables. Customers have no more interest in looking through my mistakes than I do. If I over-order a particular book, I put a couple copies in the back issues (just as I would with a correctly ordered one), and the rest get blown out below cost at the next show I attend. I capitalize the loss as soon as I possibly can and return that money to productive use. The back issues in my shop are there because I can make money on them, not because I got "stuck" with them. I liquidate my mistakes to other dealers when possible, and blow out the rest at shows at $1 a piece... I refuse to let my money sit idle, and I won't allow my shop to be full of tombstones...

 

I am not suggesting that most stores are like mine. In fact I am certain they are not. I doubt anybody here reads my posts and says "Yeah, that sounds just like the guy that owns my shop!" I doubt there are too many folks here walking into their local store and asking the guy behind the counter if he goes by "lighthouse"... But the numbers are the same in any shop... And the relationships between discounts and inventory turns are the same... So most any shop will reach the same conclusions...

[Darthdiesel]

Did I just miss out on some B&M (brick-and mortar - used/abused so much that we need an acronym ) story time???

 

Given your location and clientele, you'd be better off investing $1500 in "glass pipes" and "hookahs"

 

At the time I moved from Texas, my shop was in the top 40 back issue stores in the country....

 

I thought they drove you out due to the number of strippers in your area getting mysteriously "knocked up"

 

My ordering mistakes do not wind up on my back issue tables. Customers have no more interest in looking through my mistakes than I do.

 

Au contraire, the Cherry TPBs are always a pleasure to peruse...

 

 

I won't allow my shop to be full of tombstones...

 

But your closet on the other hand...Jmmy Hoffa, is that you in there?

 

I am not suggesting that most stores are like mine. In fact I am certain they are not. I doubt anybody here reads my posts and says "Yeah, that sounds just like the guy that owns my shop!" I doubt there are too many folks here walking into their local store and asking the guy behind the counter if he goes by "lighthouse"... But the numbers are the same in any shop... And the relationships between discounts and inventory turns are the same... So most any shop will reach the same conclusions...

 

Good GOD! B&M stores nationwide bearing the Lighthouse franchise name!!! WTF did I ever do to deserve this!!!

[lighthouse]

Did I just miss out on some B&M (brick-and mortar - used/abused so much that we need an acronym ) story time???

 

Given your location and clientele, you'd be better off investing $1500 in "glass pipes" and "hookahs"

 

At the time I moved from Texas, my shop was in the top 40 back issue stores in the country....

 

I thought they drove you out due to the number of strippers in your area getting mysteriously "knocked up"

 

My ordering mistakes do not wind up on my back issue tables. Customers have no more interest in looking through my mistakes than I do.

 

Au contraire, the Cherry TPBs are always a pleasure to peruse...

 

 

See... I told ya Darth would find the thread...

 

If I had a dollar for every time I have to say "It's not a bong, sir, it's a water pipe"...

 

Knocked-up strippers are hardly mysterious... as any good Catholic boy should know...

 

I can't believe you would suggest that Cherry TPB's are a mistake... Blasphemer!!!

 

 

[shadroch]

Lighthouse

Having never even been told the name of your store it must be obvious I'm not talking about your store, just stores in general.

I was just in another store this afternoon in Queens and ths is whatI saw.

Three huge showcases full of half empty trading card cases,several circular showcases containing statues,almost all of them reduced 30%.stacks of unsold action figures reduced 30% but still more expensive than at Kmart or something similar.This is a store that started 15 years ago down the street in a basement of a flea market.Now he has several workers, a huge store and I'm guessing severe cash flow problems as most everything is hugely discounted. I'm thinking the profits from his statue sales may just about cover the costs of his fixtures.

Is his store impressive,with its 30 foot neon sign and hundreds of sq. feet of wire racks- definitely, but is it as profitable as it could be-who knows.If he didn't have every Bowen Bust available would he lose sales-yes.If he had no Bowen bust would some of that money had flowed to other products in his store-I'm guessing yes.

It seems to me that a smaller,leaner B&M store could compete and thrive against many of these bloated popculture stores that I'm seeing in the NY area.

Just my humble opinion.

[lighthouse]

Lighthouse

Having never even been told the name of your store it must be obvious I'm not talking about your store, just stores in general.

I was just in another store this afternoon in Queens and ths is whatI saw.

Three huge showcases full of half empty trading card cases,several circular showcases containing statues,almost all of them reduced 30%.stacks of unsold action figures reduced 30% but still more expensive than at Kmart or something similar.This is a store that started 15 years ago down the street in a basement of a flea market.Now he has several workers, a huge store and I'm guessing severe cash flow problems as most everything is hugely discounted. I'm thinking the profits from his statue sales may just about cover the costs of his fixtures.

Is his store impressive,with its 30 foot neon sign and hundreds of sq. feet of wire racks- definitely, but is it as profitable as it could be-who knows.If he didn't have every Bowen Bust available would he lose sales-yes.If he had no Bowen bust would some of that money had flowed to other products in his store-I'm guessing yes.

It seems to me that a smaller,leaner B&M store could compete and thrive against many of these bloated popculture stores that I'm seeing in the NY area.

Just my humble opinion.

 

I have no doubt that there are still hundreds of stores around the country that are as poorly run as that one. Stores that survive because they have achieved a small measure of top-of-mind awareness, but are bleeding capital at an alarming rate. They may hold on for a few months or a few years depending on when (and if) a legitimate competitor appears on the scene.

 

The product selection of any new store will be somewhat dependent on the local competition. If you decide to open a shop within a mile of the guy with the best selection of Anime DVD's in seven states, you can rest assured that Anime DVD's will not be a source of revenue for you. On the other hand if the twenty nearest stores feature a combined total of 80 trade paperbacks, you can bet there is a fortune to be made in being THE source for trades in that area...

 

But in general, a comic shop cannot survive as a comics-only store. It's too difficult to build the amount of word-of-mouth you need to generate by being that niche-focused. To be successful you need people to be talking about your shop, so you can reach the comic fans who may not have any other "comic" friends, but do have "role-playing" friends or "Magic" friends. Advertising only goes so far, and additional product lines are a good way to encourage the level of foot traffic that turns into word-of-mouth...

 

Because unless you can get the word out to your potential customers, you're just winking in the dark... you know you're doing it, but no one else does...