I worked in Retail for ten years before I sold my soul to the corporate devil (including a short stint in a comic shop here in Denver). And I'm wondering, what is comic retailing like now. How has it changed? If there is anybody who has just recently opened a shop, how is it different from you expectations?
I want to know what the day to day is like. Any crazy customer stories or things that seemed like a good idea at the time and turned out badly? Anybody out there want to share?

double post post

[This message has been edited by stephen (edited 10-20-2001).]

While it's not exactly comics retail war stories, this site has it all.

Stephen:

Thanks a lot, pal. I was up half the night reading that damned site. Gord has a very funny deadpan style. No doubt it comes from spending all that time playing games.

My pleasure, Jim. I wish I could really take the credit, but Gord puts all my bitch sessions to shame. Freaking addictive, too. I don't know anyone who has been able to stop reading before at least an hour has passed...

Thanks for that site link! It was really funny- I worked retail for years in both comic stores and bookstores, and have friends who worked in videogame stores. The sad thing was that I don't doubt the truth of those stories!

I really wish the US had child abandonment laws like they do in Canada- nothing I hated more when running the comic store than the parents who decided we were a) a free amusement park for their children and/or b) a free babysitting service. I like kids and want them to read comics, but I didn't like them treating the store like a Jungle Jim's or being left there alone for over 8 hours.

--Elin Winkler

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The Gord sounds like a first class ass, but I can't stop reading it either. I had to bookmark it so I can finish it later. Thanks for the link.


I can't think of any real horror stories, but there was one remark that makes me giggle to this day. A guy came into the shop one day and asked me if I buy old comics:

"Yes I do" I said, "but right now I'm only buying older material: from the mid-seventies back."

"Well" he said, "I know these are old because the guy I got them off of is dead."

???????????

I remember back in 94 this beautiful woman walked into my shop. This in itself was odd because usually beautiful women never bought comics in my store. We were alone and she started perusing my Vertigo section. She pointed out Hellblazer and started asking me about it. Being a JC fan from Swampy 37 I figured today was my lucky day! So I chatted her up about the title and ran through the trials and tribulations of JC while her big, beautiful brown eyes were fixed upon mine. After 20 minutes or so I figured I'd ask her out. Suddenly she asked me how I can sleep at night knowing I was selling Satan to children. She then flew into a 10 minute diatribe about how I was going to burn in hell!!! Finally she told me she represented some church group and the next day she and her cohorts were going to picket my store, driving me out of business and send me burning in hell etc. She stormed out of the store vowing she'd be back the next day.

After thinking about it, and being sales were slow I decided I would avail myself to the media frenzy her group would create and flog a few comics in the meantine. It was the kind of free publicity that comes once in a life time. The next day arrived and I was ready but alas nobody showed up. She never did come back.

Hmmmm Comic War Stories?

How about when customers "butcher" the names of comic characters?

I never knew how badly some people could mangle the english language. I've had people ask me about Captain Brian (Captain Britan) Rouge and\or Ragu (Rogue)but the most amazing one was when DC published a mini series Crucible, I had one guy ask me if I had any copies of CRUC-I-BILE left.

Speculators: Got lots of stories about these.
One was when we were limiting copies of Superman#75 to 2 per customer. We were getting quite a brisk stream of customers in,
when some told us that there was a guy outside who was asking people who went into our store to pick up a copy of Superman#75 for him. Apparently he ended up with around 20 copies before we booted his ass.

Another disturbing one was when the Alpha Flight Northstar "coming out" issue was released. I actually had chowderheads asking me where they can "get that book with the fag in it" or "that homo book".

The one that really burned our ass was this one guy who used to bring his two sons in on a Friday. He would drop them off and return in an hour.
He told them to stay and read the books until he got back. The thing that really killed us was that he went to a bar down the street and got tanked. He'd come back stinking of booze and picked up his kids. Occasionally they would buy maybe one or two comics, probably to prove to his wife that he really did do "something with the boys".
After a few weeks of getting the big picture of this we decided to try to put an end to our babysitting service.
Sure enough Friday came, he dropped off the boys and off he went. This time though we had notified the local cops and informed him of his M.O. Sure enough, an hour goes by and he returns smelling like a whiskey factory.
He tells the boys to put down the comics and that it's time to leave. He then starts to grab handfulls of freebies (Dark Horse Extras, Comic Shop News, and our store newsletter)and staggers off to his car with the boys. He gets in, starts the car, and pulls out of the space. Within five seconds two police cars pulls him over and nails him for dwi. We had mixed feelings about doing this, especially having the boys see Dad being given (and failing) sobriety tests. But it was probably only a matter of time until something worse happened.

And no, we never saw them again....

Butchering names:

WeaponX: we-pon-ex

Alan Moore: alain-moray

Aliens Rogue: row-gu

Funeral Pyre: funneleral purr (kid you not)

Bill Sienkiewicz: sinkwich (among various other butchered attempts)

John Constantine: john consteen

I know I've heard more than this but I can't think of them. The ones I listed were names I heard more often than not.

To the poster about the drunken father...good for you, probably saved his kids lives.

I used to have a unruley customer that kept taking my sandwich board and putting it in front of other stores. Then he would call me from the phone booth down the street asking me where my board was.




[This message has been edited by ScottFree (edited 12-01-2001).]