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One reason why comic book stores are going under
ajcasperite
Posts: 221
Why are comic shops going under? Here is one reason. If you are going to participate in free comic book day, then you should post online or have some knowledge of what special events and artists are appearing. I called 2 shops in the Philly suburbs this morn and they had to ask the other associates the names of the artists that might appear and also they were not sure exactly when some events were going to start if at all. A whole year to plan and this is what you get.
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http://www.gratiscomictag.de/
Some shops give away more free books depending on how much a customer is willing to spend in the shop.......
Needless to say that there are not many (pure) comic shops left. People prefer to buy online. (Thus again not attracting new readers...)
While ultimately the onus of getting new customers falls upon the LCS, I think we kind of have an obligation to help people get into the hobby. I use my Facebook and twitter accounts to let all my friends and followers know about stuff like FCBD and Denver Comic Con, because I know that the general public has no idea that this stuff is going on let alone how to get involved or participate. Why should a shop do something special when they know the only customers that come in for FCBD are mostly the "regulars" who are going to grab their free books and leave? They spend their money every Wednesday, why should they spend more on this "holiday?" Maybe you could call the store and talk to the manager/owner and voice your displeasure? If they're worth it, they'll want to listen.
I spoke with one of the owners of my LCS and we discussed this very subject and he told me it can be frustrating but he can't look at it that way. He goes out of his way to do a good job with FCBD and usually t pays off with a few new customers each year. Some new customers and some customers from other shops who are dissatisfied with their store and some who use his store as a backup to their LCS. It all adds up to new customers for his store.
My local shop tanked about a year ago. Few years ago it was fresh, exciting and new but it went down hill, moved to a crappier building across the street and died. When they had free comic book day you would get one book free and anything else you had to buy a comic to get another freebie book. I guess they literally meant "free comic book" not "comic books" . I know there are artists in the area, comic artists who they could have asked to participate but I guess perhaps the store was not interested. Sadly, These days I have to go for a drive to get any kind of comics, free or not.
Anyway, at 10:15 or so the clerk at the counter told me that 15 people had already come in for FCBD, which, if you knew how small a shop this was in how rural an area, is quite impressive. I have no idea how many were "new readers", but while walking around the store I did see an awful lot of kids there with their parents. The limit was one free comic per customer, but since I'm a regular I was asked "If we have any left at the end of the day, which ones would you want us to save for you?"
Probably best of all, they had two gigantic stacks of Marvel Essentials that they were giving away for free (one per customer again). There was a Spider-Man one (Spectacular Vol. 3, I think?) and a She-Hulk one (reprinting the series from the late '70s). I chose the latter. Apparently they were sent all of these for free (or for next to nothing) from Diamond, and decided to just make them part of FCBD. I guess we could nit-pick and say "Well those old things aren't the best way to hook new readers!" But I can remember how cool I thought old '50s-'60s reprints were when I was a young kid. When I was five, I used to be overjoyed when my mom brought me old '50s Batman reprints home from the library. I'm not sure how this would be much different.
I'm not exactly sure how much advertising my shop did for FCBD. I know they put it up on their Facebook page, and had posters up in the main section of the fleamarket for weeks now. Yesterday they had a big balloon-laden display up with all of the free comics (and Essentials) up right as you walk in, so anyone passing by (or anyone just wanting to go to the fleamarket) would see it. I can't really imagine many people seeing the display and NOT thinking "Oh, what is this? This looks cool", even if they don't go on to be a regular comics reader week after week after week.
I know FCBD doesn't always go well for some people, and in certain areas it looks like a missed opportunity. But sometimes I think that a lot of these nitpicks are only possible from the perspective of diehard fans. I think more casual readers, or outsiders that we want to convert to become readers, would probably look at it as something neat. They wouldn't be pouting that they couldn't have ALL of the free comics; if a parent (or parents) took their kids to FCBD, each member of the family would just get a different comic and they'd probably share and be happy enough, I would think? FCBD isn't going to save the world, but in general I think it's a good idea, especially if the LCS is going to go an extra step or two.
On the one hand, I can put my Disillusioned Diehard Fan hat on and say that DC is ridiculous for not putting out any new material for FCBD. But on the other hand, when kids see a Jim Lee cover of a Superman comic done by Geoff Johns and Adam Kubert -- if something like that is NOT going to somewhat interest them, then they're just not going to ever be a fan anyway. It didn't interest me, nor did the more "kiddie"-looking comics, but catering so much to diehards...that's not really the point, was it? The only comic I was interested in was the "Infinity" one from Marvel. So there WAS something there for me. But I saw a good number of little kids picking up comics yesterday morning, just within the 10 minutes I was in the shop. Any sort of overwrought hand-ringing about older fans somewhere not being able to greedily scarf up ALL of the free comics . . . just doesn't really matter to me in light of that.
His policy was that you could take one of each free book.
The store was packed and the line was quite long most of the day from what I could gather. I think it was a very successful day for Pittsburgh Comics.
All in all a great day, I think a lot of kids getting books in their hands is the biggest benefit of FCBD, hopefully they keep reading!
We hit our LCS almost as soon as they opened, there wasn't a big crowd there yet but by the time we left the people were starting to show up. Bill Halliar was there doing sketches. Not sure if there were any sales going on or not.
The local AMC also asked the shop to set up a booth inside the theater for a few days over the weekend. I'm sure the shop had a great weekend.
The businesses in turn put up flyers for the store and promote fcbd.
And they always a run a big sale of 5 dollar trades. I got 109 dollars retail for 25 bucks. And they went with 3 free books a person which seems fair. My only complaint was that the place was packed but I don't think that is a complaint for FCBD.
Oh and he couldn't go outside because there was a significant chance of rain and that would make for bad comic mush.