Is diversity hurting comic stores?

[shadroch]

You've got me on that last point.

[Darthdiesel]

You've got me on that last point.

 

"you had me at 'Hello' "

[hobbes]

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...

 

This describes the most successfull comic shop in my town. Go in on a Friday evening or anytime on a Saturday and there is a steady flow of adults and kids. Why? Games. Yu-Gi-Oh dominates the younger kids and Mechwarrior rules the teenage crowd. I have also been in the store on a few weeknights and seen small groups of adults playing Magic The Gathering. He has a hand full of tables up front along with the requisite supplies so he can make the gatherings at his store as easy and friendly as possible. He also sells a decent selection of tpbs and current comics.

Stress the current comics. He ditched his back issues months ago and does not even make an attempt at stocking any now. I noticed this immediately and after several visits, finally inquired as to the lack of older comics. His reply was quick, "They don't sell as well as the rest." He simply makes too much off of cards, figures, t-shirts, and tpbs to merit the time and effort required to maintain a supply of back issues. When shoppers/browsers come in he pushes tpbs hard along with whatever the hottest currently monthly comic may be. That is pretty much it. The funny part? He is a comic guy. Disappointing but I see his situation clearly. He has found his road to success and is running down it at full steam.

Oh, for what it's worth, he is in the second largest mall in the city.

[dam60]

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.

 

Great point - absolutely true!! Comic stores need to focus on selling comics (although I can see having other things for diversity purposes) but let's not lose focus on pushing the books . . .

 

DAM

[dam60]

The goal in pop culture retailing now is to get as many people with twenty dollar bills into the shop in the first place...