i am opening a comic book store.

[Bill Pengelly]

as the title suggest i am in the process of opening a comic book store. most of the fine details are worked out (just today i put a down payment on the location which is crazy dope). but i was just wondering if anyone had ideas on event i could hold, out of the ordinary things i could sell or just general stuff you would like to see in a comic store.

update. i need a better name any suggestions?

 

[shootthebandit]

Comic books would be a good start

Joking aside things like movie nights (dependent on copyright laws), LAN party nights (theres an obvious cost involved unless you get people to bring their own PC/console plus an issue of space) , board game nights, snacks and beverages.

Just make it like a one stop nerd shop plus social environment

 

[Bill Pengelly]

yer i am already sort of arranging byo lan parties and i am working on d&d nights

 

[Elfgore]

As someone who used to frequent a comic book store, I can give some decent advice.

I'd really suggest getting involved in Friday Night Magic. It can draw a lot of people to your store. I'd also suggest stocking up on booster packs as well. I'm pretty sure the comic book shop I played at made most of their money on Magic the Gathering.

Other than that, maybe try some 25% off deals every now and again. Could help get your name out and some regular customers.

Anyway, best of luck to you man.

 

[madwarper]

You say your store location is "dope", but that doesn't say anything about the general location, or what can be done there.

I mean, is it just a newspaper stand, or an actual store? Does it have room for tables? If not, can you create makeshift tables (ie. place sheet wood over some comic racks)? Because, if you have room where people can play card games/board games/miniatures/etc., then you can sell it to them. And, if you can get people to play there, you can apply to hold sanctioned events there.

 

[Bill Pengelly]

the location is 70m2 store and the way i have it laid out atm i have a pretty space left free for activity.

 

[Ratty]

As someone who used to frequent a comic book store, I can give some decent advice.

I'd really suggest getting involved in Friday Night Magic. It can draw a lot of people to your store. I'd also suggest stocking up on booster packs as well. I'm pretty sure the comic book shop I played at made most of their money on Magic the Gathering.

Other than that, maybe try some 25% off deals every now and again. Could help get your name out and some regular customers.

Anyway, best of luck to you man.

^this. Most comic shops I've seen have slowly morphed into Magic the Gathering shops. So I'm pretty sure TCGs is where the real nerd money is these days. I'd also suggest setting up an area for people to play board games, like Settlers of Catan, and have some snacks and drinks they can buy while they're there. Though for extra cred let them know it's cool for them to order out pizza or chinese/whatever while they play. I think this will encourage customers to feel like the store is a kind of home away from home and make the atmosphere more jovial and welcoming for the man off the street.

Also, nerds love Smash Bros. and they love tournaments. Set up a big TV (bigger the better of course) and the latest Smash Bros./Mario Kart etc. Game and put up fliers for your tournament(s) around town.

 

[shootthebandit]

Why not try to appeal to the mainstream audience too. Theres probably a load of people out there who dont know that they would like this stuff. I dont know how you would do this except perhaps casual beer, pizza and COD/FIFA/Madden nights and people might want to come along then ask questions about some more niche stuff

Swap meets might also be a cool idea. People can swap collectables, comic or games

 

[Scarim Coral]

I don't have any advice on what activities you could do but I just want to say, I wish you luck on your comic store, may it prosper!

 

[Harpalyce]

For the love of all things bright and beautiful, MAKE YOUR STORE AN ACCESSIBLE AND AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.

That's the biggest mistake that I see killing comic book and gaming stores. Don't shut out women - they're half of your potential audience. Similarly, don't shut out minorities. If you make your comic book store an appealing place to only white dudebros, you're going to die a slow death.

If people are being creepy, ask them to leave. Don't decorate solely with tits and ass statuettes. Throw up Wonder Woman and Miles Morales as Spider Man in the window. And, I'm just gonna say this again, if people are being creepy, show them the door. Make a point to maybe even pick up 'zines and mini comics from local sources. Have a shelf for indie comics and the more well-known stuff like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. And did I mention not serving people who are being creepy? Because that's the most important part.

Seriously. It's your little kingdom. You make the rules. Have one of the rules be "if you're being a creep, you're out". The person who has his eyes glued to the tits and ass of every female in his presence? Out he goes. The person who is loudly making racist jokes and thinks 'rape' is a hilarious punchline? Tell him to go elsewhere. So on, and so on.

It's good business sense. Don't shut out so much of your potential clientele. Appeal to broad interests. That's the way to succeed, and the way to distance yourself from the cancer that current comic book culture is busy nursing.

As far as more practical advice goes, make sure to advertise around your local colleges and even high schools. Especially advertise event nights that are targetting people who are in the "I've always wanted to get into this, I've just never had the chance" camp. Maybe do something like a short one-day-on-the-weekend D&D campaign with premade characters, with tickets costing 15 dollars to also cover pizza and drinks. A Magic beginner's tournament where you use the ruleset of you only play with what you get from x number of packs (I don't actually play card games like these, I just like listening to people talk about game crafting theory haha), and again use tickets to cover the costs of the packs and some refreshments.

Things like that, basically, so that people who have always wanted to try things can come have a taste that doesn't get them into an overwhelming commitment. Then if even just a small percent of them are hooked, you have new lifetime customers who see you as the person to come to for advice and guidance and already have that loyalty to your store.

Most importantly, though... Best of luck dude! Good luck!! :>

 

[Ratty]

For the love of all things bright and beautiful, MAKE YOUR STORE AN ACCESSIBLE AND AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE.

That's the biggest mistake that I see killing comic book and gaming stores. Don't shut out women - they're half of your potential audience. Similarly, don't shut out minorities. If you make your comic book store an appealing place to only white dudebros, you're going to die a slow death.

If people are being creepy, ask them to leave. Don't decorate solely with tits and ass statuettes. Throw up Wonder Woman and Miles Morales as Spider Man in the window. And, I'm just gonna say this again, if people are being creepy, show them the door. Make a point to maybe even pick up 'zines and mini comics from local sources. Have a shelf for indie comics and the more well-known stuff like Alison Bechdel's Fun Home. And did I mention not serving people who are being creepy? Because that's the most important part.

Seriously. It's your little kingdom. You make the rules. Have one of the rules be "if you're being a creep, you're out". The person who has his eyes glued to the tits and ass of every female in his presence? Out he goes. The person who is loudly making racist jokes and thinks 'rape' is a hilarious punchline? Tell him to go elsewhere. So on, and so on.

It's good business sense. Don't shut out so much of your potential clientele. Appeal to broad interests. That's the way to succeed, and the way to distance yourself from the cancer that current comic book culture is busy nursing.

As far as more practical advice goes, make sure to advertise around your local colleges and even high schools. Especially advertise event nights that are targetting people who are in the "I've always wanted to get into this, I've just never had the chance" camp. Maybe do something like a short one-day-on-the-weekend D&D campaign with premade characters, with tickets costing 15 dollars to also cover pizza and drinks. A Magic beginner's tournament where you use the ruleset of you only play with what you get from x number of packs (I don't actually play card games like these, I just like listening to people talk about game crafting theory haha), and again use tickets to cover the costs of the packs and some refreshments.

Things like that, basically, so that people who have always wanted to try things can come have a taste that doesn't get them into an overwhelming commitment. Then if even just a small percent of them are hooked, you have new lifetime customers who see you as the person to come to for advice and guidance and already have that loyalty to your store.

Most importantly, though... Best of luck dude! Good luck!! :>

I think a good way to go about this would be to make sure you have a few non-whites and non-males on your staff, if you have staff beyond yourself. And ask your employees to tell you if any customers make them uncomfortable/are offensive. And they'll probably be able to let you know who the creeps are pretty quickly. While other customers would probably just leave the store and not come back instead of complain to you/staff.

 

[-Ezio-]

i'd love to have a comic book store here. but as it's a small town in england that's probably never gonna happen. i have to get my comics online.

 

[legend of duty]

I went into this nice comic shop in the mall and there was nobody up front for like three minutes. The guy was in the semi enclosed back setting up a tournament. Place could have been knocked over easily. Other than security concerns maybe you should try fixing and selling retro consoles and games on the side. It would at least get more people in the store.

 

[Frezzato]

Funny, I just helped shut down a store full of comic books. Probably just over 1,000 books. It's too bad you're over there and I'm over here. It was really a coin store, but only a handful of super nerds deal with coins, so we ended up buying a comic collection from someone who found us online.

The store was owned by two partners, one of which is my lifelong friend. The other guy was left in charge of the day-to-day operations, which is unfortunate because he has a lot of mental problems (real problems, involving prescription medication on a daily basis). He would do very stupid things, like buy a 10-lb. bag of junk metal off of eBay because he thought he could find something worthwhile. Then he went through the pile of junk over the course of a month, wasting a lot of time. And he never listened to our suggestions, some of which were:

Spoiler: Ignored ideas.

[li]He put a display case near the front window, which is useless because it's super bright outside and you can't see into the store. If you're going to have a display, make sure something in the front window is mirrored, because if there's one thing people can't resist, it's looking at their own reflection.[/li]
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[li]If you're going to market the front of the store, you might perhaps try marketing something towards women. From what I've seen at our own store and at places like Game Stop, it's mostly women who take out the kids during the day to shop. Ignoring 50% of the population is a dumb move.[/li]
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[li]Relying on just a select group of hardcore enthusiasts probably won't float the store. I was brought in at the last minute to put stuff on eBay, but it wasn't enough. I managed to put up 25 auctions in one day (over 90 total in just two weeks), while the operations guy managed to put up just 27 in an entire month. [/li]
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[li]The guy handling operations clearly hadn't worked a single day in retail. We kept around $10,000+ in a safe at the back, and every time he went to get change he would leave the customer at the front. This is something that only a crazy idiot would do. The cash used for transactions was never reconciled. It was never counted in the morning, and never counted at night. It remained uncounted until the store closed down, just five months after opening. So yeah, daily reconciliation of the cash drawer, it's something that every business does for a reason.[/li]

Good luck with the store, man. If only there were a cheap way to ship things in bulk to Australia, I would have lots of classic 70's Marvel for you, and a ton of 90's era books.

 

[Fox12]

Hmm, well I have a rock shop near me. They have tons of comics, but they sell CD's and classic rock t-shirts too. It brings in the metal heads, and it definitely has a "cool" vibe to it. Play good music. Maybe mix up your merchandise. Make sure your staff is warm and friendly to everyone that enters, that's a big one. And make sure you have respectable stuff present. Little Timmy doesn't want to go to the comic store with tentacle hentai plastered on the front window. I'm sure this is common sense for you, but I swear, after a brief stent in comics I just got weirded out. I'll read some stuff on comixology, but otherwise I've fallen out.

Have some arteur/indie stuff, even if it's a smaller section. Maus, Scott Mcloud, Persepolis, ect. Maybe not a big seller, but it adds respectability. Have a kids section too.

As for events, just do a movie night, or card games. Make your place a hangout for people. HIRE FRIENDLY EMPLOYEES. Seriously, they're the face of your business.

 

[Belaam]

Without a doubt tables and location for gaming. Website tied to store for scheduling same and meeting groups.

Try outreach to local schools. When Free Comic Book Day rolls around in May (and assuming that's paid for by publishers), contact English Department teachers/chairs in the area with information about what you are offering). Any tie you can make with local school writing/art departments for drawing contests or comic plots would draw interest and intro your store to new customers.

Have a good selection of manga or comics focused on female characters. There are a lot of female anime/manga fans at the school where I teach, but they seem to have a pretty limited selection of stuff they all know (hello, Free). If you can get some of the manga fans familiar with your location, that would be good too (again with the schools, look for ones that have comic or manga clubs and maybe be a guest speaker or at least make up some coupons for them to distribute. (Be sure the club gets permission if you go to speak - you may need to be fingerprinted, depending on the school, but generally a one time guest presenter with an adult club adviser present doesn't need one.

All of the above at local colleges too.

 

[Harpalyce]

I think a good way to go about this would be to make sure you have a few non-whites and non-males on your staff, if you have staff beyond yourself. And ask your employees to tell you if any customers make them uncomfortable/are offensive. And they'll probably be able to let you know who the creeps are pretty quickly. While other customers would probably just leave the store and not come back instead of complain to you/staff.

As usual Ratty's wisdom goes above and beyond my own. This is pretty essential - you want your store to be accessible to everybody, because you want to sell more stuff, and part of that is just telling the creeps to gtfo.

Make sure all employees know that if they see a customer making others uncomfortable they should definitely ask them to leave. Maybe make sure they're acquainted with any security that there might be (if you're in a mall or strip-mall type thing where shops share it, definitely the non-emergency police number, where a can of mace is hidden near the register etc). And back them up when it comes to things like this.

I realize this means relying on finding some people who are good workers but, hey, hopefully you can do that. It just might take a bit more effort to specify that you are openly friendly to poc and women working there.

 

[Dango]

Please don't you have so much to live for.

 

[Ranorak]

the location is 70m2 store and the way i have it laid out atm i have a pretty space left free for activity.

How about table top games?
I know it's not really the same as comics, but an evening where people can gather and play tabletop games could be fun.

 

[lechat]

figurines.
i probably wouldn't set foot in a comic book store but if the window had some shinies....

Spoiler