My family went on a road trip today and, whenever possible, I try to stop in at the local Comic Book Shop. This time I was greatly disapointed.
I won’t name the city or the store, but it represented a major problem that the comic book industry has. This store was on the main street of the town with plenty of oportunity and traffic. Unfortunately, the store was a hole.Â
The town was old and thriving on it’s historic past and its antigue delealers. You know the type, it was once a busy city and now the downtown area is refered to as the “Historic District” and the only thing down town are city offies and antigue delealers. I went there because I like antigues, but they don’t atract major business. And there sat this comic book store.
As I opened the door, I left my family outside becuase I had a feeling that it would be small. The windows where dark, so I could not look in. Inside, the store was small…cramped, in fact. I am not oppossed to small stores, but this one was cramped and cluttered. The store was littered with baseball cards and records, which told me that they didn’t know what business they were in. The store felt dirty, this was emphasized by the smoke provided by the workers. Then, the selection was poor. While they had all of the new arrivals, there back issue island was filled with primarily obscure tiles and independents.
I see these types of stores too often. While you should feel like your in another world when you read a comic, the store should not be. Many times, like today, I feel that the stores are dirty. they lack market focus and, they are incredibly cluttered with what ever may make some money. This is not what the comic book industry needs to market to the masses. I think that if I lived in that town, I would be ordering online.