Comic Shop Pet Peeves – Are you Closing Down?

When you have your own business, for the most part, you are proud of being able to work for yourself and be your own boss. You also take a lot of pride in your customer or client’s perception of your business, and whether or not they are happy with the service you provide.

That’s why we are constantly trying to improve what we do. A couple of months ago, we gathered a group of friends on a Sunday night after our store closed for the day. The group of us worked hard through the night, removing everything from the store and cleaning it from top to bottom, and then putting it back together again with a much better design and more shelving for product.
 

Store cleaning day!

We took pride in the work we had completed, and eagerly awaited the customer compliments that would no doubt be plentiful in number. Do you know what we heard multiple times that day?

“Are you closing down?”

Ouch. Do you know how that feels when you own a business? It’s like somebody meeting you on the street, taking a look at your face and saying, “are you dying?” The outrage!

This wasn’t the first time we heard people asking this question. We started to put together the puzzle pieces and noticed a pattern. Anytime we cleaned up, or made a small change in our displays or presentation, we had people ask if we were closing up shop.

So why does this happen?

My theory is this: a great deal of our customers are comic fanboys. Hell, WE are comic fanboys. Fanboys are obsessed with order. They buy issues upon issues of comics and carefully preserve them in bags and boards, and organize them chronologically in storage boxes. Comic fanboys obsess over continuity in their favorite titles. If Clark Kent is on Earth in this week’s issue of “Superman” but on New Krypton in “Action Comics” – people will be out for blood!

Fanboys generally don’t like the wheel being re-invented either. Take a look at
the outcry from comic fanboys when the Watchmen movie was released with a slight change to the ending of the film. It was what ruined the movie for many of the biggest fans of the book. Comic Fanboys believe that things are best left the way they are.

Armed with this revelation, I don’t get offended now when someone asks if the store is closing. I realize that this, in some twisted way, is a compliment! People enjoy our store so much that they do not want to see it change. We do need to change from time to time, so it’s important that we make changes that will be a benefit to our customers. I pledge to not be outraged anymore by this comment.

Unless you’re the lady who asked if we were closing because I said we didn’t have any Lady Gaga posters, and that we were not going to be getting any Lady Gaga posters anytime soon. You can go to hell :).

Speaking of hell, that’s exactly where I think I am going after participating in the latest episode of “How it Is” featuring Canada’s newest singing sensation Clive Felice! In this episode, Clive explains why movies like Twilight: New Moon are destroying the coolness of Vampires. I make a guest appearance!

-Kevin

Kevin Hickey and Rob Sinnott are the owners of Stadium Comics in Brampton, Ontario. Check them out on their website at www.sidekickcomics.ca or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/stadiumcomics