The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe has countless industries in complete lockdown, including many comic book shops, but savvy shop owners are turning to innovative new ways to keep their customers engaged and stocked with content. Curbside pickup was most stores' initial attempt at servicing customers, while also keeping a safe distance. But with more and more people being concerned to leave the house every day, and with orders for pickup reportedly dwindling, even that seems to be becoming less of an option. So with most brick and mortar stores shuttered to the public and curbside pickup becoming less and less of an option, it was time to adapt again. The solution for many shops this time? Strictly online sales.
But are online-only sales capable of sustaining a physical storefront? Especially when your customer base is so dedicated and oftentimes feel a real sense of community not just amongst themselves, but also with their local shop's workers? Maybe? Maybe not. If you can't get your customers to your goods, why not get the goods straight to the customer? Enter: the internet
"In the early stages of the store’s shutdown, Arsenal was offering curbside delivery," said Ali Alleman, general manager of country's largest comic book distributor, stopped shipping new issues, out of fear of spreading the virus. Without new content arriving, neither were the customers.
We’re basically either eBaying or putting it on our website. We’re packing stuff. And then somebody’s dropping off loads and loads of packages at the post office every day. That’s been our bread and butter right now... People are at home and they’re like, ‘Ugh. What am I gonna do?’ They’re going through their runs and saying, ‘I’m missing all these issues of Wolverine.’ Like literally I have a customer doing that right now. He’s filling in all his X-Men and Wolverine issues through us. And people are obviously just sitting at home scrolling on eBay.
On the other side of the country, Jermaine Exum sees the same shifts occurring as general manager of Acme Comics in Greensboro, NC, which boasts the title of the oldest and largest comic shop in Central North Carolina. With his doors also being closed for nearly three weeks, he echoed Alleman’s of curbside deliveries drying up. “Mail order is what’s possible right now,” Exum said. "But people have been very generous and very understanding of it - ‘What’s the procedure? OK, let’s do that.’” Both Exum and Alleman - as well as their colleagues - have taken to sites like Facebook or Instagram to host live discussions and sales for their followers to enjoy from afar.
Back in Ventura, Arsenal had the same idea, Alleman said. Her store's owner and business partner now regularly host live streams for their followers, discussing new items, what's on sale, offering suggestions and engaging with viewers. The streams are often times themes, with Alleman scheduled to host one soon focused strictly on graphic novels.
Exum said that considering his store is located in a busy shopping center surrounded by several restaurants he had asked himself in the past, “If only there was some way we could just bring this stuff out to somebody’s car,” he said. “But out of necessity we now know how to do that.”
I’ve seen comic book stores, ourselves included, coming up with new innovations, things that maybe they’d intended to do, and just never got to it. Or things that they just outright developed. New techniques to be able to service people. This is a crazy situation and I think that small businesses, especially comic book stores, are learning new things out of necessity. The whole curbside technique where a person can pay over the phone and the stuff is brought out to them. It sounds like such a simple thing, but I don’t know of any stores that had been offering that (before the outbreak). Many stores will do like a weekly email blast, but what you’ve seen in the last few weeks is stores doing video of themselves with product, having something to say. And again that’s a small thing that I’m sure other industries do all the time, but that’s had tremendous results.
Despite Exum saying he doesn’t like appearing on camera, he says, “I will do what is necessary for our small business. I’ll get over a thing real fast.” Comic book stores have been forced to adapt - how it ultimately plays out, remains to be seen.
