I am at the beach this weekend, So today's post is going to be a little light. - Jim
Reading this news item at the ComicsBeat.com, It made me think about Comic book sales at my own comic shop.
A Growing Sense of Concern Over Marvel’s Sales - http://pulse.me/s/bTQgh
For the past couple of months I've noticed my comic shop orders less titles and often running out of comics before the end of Wednesday. In many cases I have also noticed the shop misjudged how many to issues to order (the recent wedding issue of x men was significantly over ordered.) There was also a recent round of layoffs at the shop with many long time employees being shown the door. All that adds up to a business in serious trouble.
This makes me wonder:
Are the problems at my shop indicative of widespread problems throughout the industry?
So how is the place you buy your comics doing?
Sadly, Union County (NC) has been one of the fastest growing counties in the nation for nearly 20 years now, yet despite all that growth, there have been only two attempts at comic shops (very short lived, they both tried to make their REAL money in Magic, Pokemon and Heroclix games). There are no book retailers except for two used book shops. Comic fans here have to trek into Charlotte to find a shop, and I don't go frequently enough to gauge how they are doing.
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few comic shops here in the Philippines, but among them one franchise looks to be thriving, one looks to be doing okay, and the other (the oldest among the three) seems to be concentrating more on selling magazines, with comics delegated to the counter area.
ReplyDeleteComics is really not a big business here, but if there's one bright spot on the horizon it seems that the indie scene here is thriving a bit more than it was the past few years.