Wildo1966

Well...Today I was at my local newsstand and I was looking thru their comic selection. I picked out 3 books, Batman Confidential #1, Marvel Spotlight Ultimate Spiderman and Marvel New Universal #1. All 3 books I saw at my LCS but I did not buy them there because every single time I purchase a book of the shelf (not on my reserve list) they charge me full price plus they haunt me to no end to add the book to my sub list. Today I was able to browse the issues and buy what I wanted with no hassles or pressure, that is the way I want to buy my books. So from now on my local newsstand store gets my comic business and my LCS will get my reserve list money and that's it...If anyone wonders why LCS are few and far between you can guess why...Plus my LCS smells like feet and sweat everytime I go there....

stingermck

Interesting. With my reserve, I can get 15% off any comic, trade, or comic supplies in the store, not just my pull list. But I have to be subscribed to 21 comics or more

Wildo1966

I subscribe to just as many as my LCS, but for some reason they give NO discounts when you buy something off the shelf, which is absurd IMO because I buy $30-$40 per week from them. With some net stores giving up to 40% new books I am very tempted to go online for my books...

Sessa17

Dude, that sucks. That is 1 shitty store. I've never heard of a store doing that before. I can certainly understand a store wanting to know if you want to add something to your pull list, it helps greatly with ordering new books, but we give discounts to everything our subscribers by, including toys or statues.

I wish I can take everyone here to my store, when I hear all the horror stories at everyone's LCS.

stingermck

I wish I could get discounts on toys And mine always charges $20-22 for DC Direct, when the f'n mall only charges $12-15. The other LCS only sells them in sets. Sigh.

It always feels like my LCS is doing me a favor by selling comics.

exharrison

A lot of LCSs don't understand the concept of competing and earning their customer's dollar. Customer service is where the LCSs should really beat out others.

Wildo1966

You know why my LCS sucks big time? Because they know they are the only store within 25 miles that offers a sub service. I am waiting for the day they inform me they have to lower the sub discount. They will see a dust clowd from their filthy floor where I was standing as I run out the door never to return. Also another new trick they started this year, if you special order something from Previews and you don't pay for it in full by the time it arrives they give no discount, yep full price is charged. Now I know 2 Ultimate Spiderman hardcovers were advertised this month for coming out in March, that's $60 if I don't pay upfront which bites...I might order those online..

Giantrobo

I just put the extra books into my weekly stack before I check out.

MovieExchange

Maybe it's because your LCS isn't getting the same discounts that net stores get when they buy. 40% is about the maximum discount a store gets when they buy their books through Diamond. So how are they supposed to give you 40%?

The only reason most stores give any discount is because they have competition in the area. Here in Flint, I have on store 5 minutes from me, another one in neighboring Grand Blanc, about 10 minutes from me, and another in neighoring Burton, about 15 minutes from me. They all have some form of discount, be it based on your total purchase or in the form of a yearly "club membership."


I think they understand competing, but what the customer doesn't understand is the cost of staying in business. Back issues are few and far between, and many stores have to sell something extra to try and make a little more money... new issues are always the main earner for your LCS. Thus they have to be careful that they don't discount themselves right out of business.

Now customer service, that I'll agree with you on. Because the LCS can't compete with the net stores that are most likely buying direct from Marvel & DC, they have to raise their level of customer service. That's why I stopped going to the store that was on my way to work, because they never acted happy to see me, they never got my pulls right, and any time I commented on how they needed to get things right they acted as if it were my fault.

The shop I go to now has friendly employees that love to talk to you. The owner is usually too busy to engage in long conversation, so he makes sure to have people there that know the product and can get to know the customers. I got about 15 minutes out of my way on Wednesday morning to get my books before work, but it's well worth it.

Sessa17

Where did you get that information from? I've been doing the orders for my store for 7 years & I can assure you that 40% is not the maximum discount a retailer gets.

Patman

You can get around 50% discount depending on the order levels for your store (or collection of stores under the same account).

I'm very lucky in that I don't have a pull list, but still get a 20% discount just for being a long-time frequenter of the store for the past decade or so. My LCS does offer quite a bit of service to earn your business, so I'm very fortunate. There were a few other stores within a 10 mile radius, but they didn't last too long because their customer service level wasn't too high, and the owner was more interested in talking about politics on talk radio rather than meeting the needs of customers and potential customers for comics and comic-related fare.

MovieExchange

That's what the maximum used to be when I was working in a shop. What has it raised to? More importantly, how much product do you have to order to get the discount? I mean let's be real... a higher discount doesn't mean jack if you're stuck with so much product that you're losing money on unsold items.

Sessa17

We get a 55% discount on most new comics. I'm not sure what the breakdown is on the discount tiers, but we are definitely not a big store, I think most comic book stores with about 60 subscribers (which I don't think is that much) are in the 55% range for their new comics.

mh4268

I love my local shop. I get 25% off new comics and trades. I only go there during the day when the kiddies are at school. I dont like a ton of magic/yu-gi-oh kids running around. Also on black friday the is a 40-60% off the entire store (statues and what not included). I also get great service, we can talk for like 15 minutes on tv shows and movies everyweek.

bishop2knight

Stinks that people have poor comic shops around their area. I have several in town that are pretty good, but my store of choice is Mile High (they have 3 locations within 20 minutes of me). They are always friendly, which is what keeps me going in. Of course, the lack of a decent discount keeps me from buying my regular books there, I still head in a couple times a month for impulse buying.

exharrison

I said nothing about spending more money on running the business. True, you can quantify a cost to customer service, but it really is negligible in comparison to the cost of discounting. I, personally, could care less about a 10, 20% or whatever off discount. I may wish that comics were still 1.25 like when I started, but I accepted the fact that they cost more money and adjusted how I spend accordingly.

What I really care about in a small store is the intangibles. That is what they can always have over the big internet competition. Its just the fact that I get the feeling that all the LCSs around here don't care to try to EARN my business in any way. They just expect me to pick their store. I have three in my area. I went to one store one time and it looked and smelled like their employees don't even bathe and the store was horribly disorganized. Another was just terribly hard to find anything. The third was better, but sometimes I drive back from the store to work and feel like I didn't have a break and I think "why did I give these guys $20 again this week?" I want to support the little guy, but I want the little guy to care that I choose him over the discounts and often times I just don't get it.

The worst thing is I grew up knowing a good store. I would go to the flea market where a store owner used to set up on the weekends and I went 20 miles out of the way to his store every once in a while. He and his son ran his shop and they were some of the nicest owners I had ever met. They had no fake smiles and you always felt that they genuinely appreciated the comic business and customers. I haven't found owners like that in a long time.

Chew

I've completely given up on going to my LCS. Discounts are bad, selection is bad, service is bad.

It's pretty refreshing to go to some of the Chicago shops when I'm visiting friends and see the huge difference.

harpoonipa

I've been using DCBS for the last 9 months. LCS can't touch the 40% off. Do I feel bad blowing off the LCS? Sometimes... but with two kids a mortgage and tons of other bills, it was DCBS or nothing.

Superboy

I don't feel bad for not supporting the LCS sometimes. I've just seen so many stores with poorly stored backissues that I wouldn't buy for a quarter. That and comics these days are so overpriced it's not even funny.

ytrez

The comic shop I used to go to in the 80's & 90's always had cats roaming around and they always seemed to be sleeping on the back issue box I wanted to look in. And God forbid you push one aside.

There's one by me now that I haven't been in for about 10 years because the owner is an extremely creepy s.o.b. who, on the couple of occassions I went in there with my wife, stared at her like a sex starved convict. Besides the store is cramped and the owner's a jackass as well as a pervert.

The shop I go to very occaisonally now (I use mailordercomics.com) seems frequently to put big planks of wood over thier back issue stock so that kids can play Yugi Oh or some such card nonsense. I say kids, but last time I was in there some of the players had to be in their 30's. Other than that, it is a pretty good store and usually has 20% off sales throughout the year so I'll pick up some trades, or action figures or statues for my kids.

stingermck

So yesterday I finally closed my box, after being very satisfied with DCBS. I asked for my books one last time and there were a few in there I just didn’t want.

So I put those back on the shelf, and went to check out and said I also want to close my box. First thing the owner asks, is where the rest of the books are. Then it became this big thing of him telling me, I owe him for all those books, he orders them 2 months in advance (yes, but if I add a book on Tuesday, and it’s in my box on Wednesday, you didn’t exactly order it for me, but whatever) and they are considered a sold item. They cant go back on the shelf, cause that throws off inventory etc. But hey the ones I put back were mostly sold out Civil War stuff, so I think they’ll be ok.

I was then told that their store is the greatest since they don’t require a deposit, and that’s why they give me such great discounts. 15% for 30 books. (Which only applies to comics and supplies; no toys, posters, etc.)

So I told him that since I’ve just started a new job, I can get these books I selected now, or I can go get those back off the shelf and he can hold everything else for a month until I get paid. He then backed down, and started asking why I’m canceling, and if it was because of trades. Oh well, I’ll still go there, but with higher prices, and other things that require money, I need bargains, just like my DVD’s.

And I didn’t get my box discount one last time...

bishop2knight

Now that, my friend, is called burning bridges. In my mind, if he wanted your business in the future, he'd give you that last discount...the one you've "earned" for being a loyal customer for such a long time. I'm not sure about you, but if my LCS did that when I pulled my box, I'd consider going elsewhere when I got the urge to get your comic fix.

Patman

Stinger should have bought the books, got the discount, and then told them to close his account.

stingermck

Yeah I shoudl've done it that way, just assumed he wouldn't be an douche about it. Oh well.

On a side note, I still got their newsletter last night, and it had a coupon for 50% off hardcovers, but doesn't apply to Absolutes. Sigh.

mraor

I've been going to the same comic shop chain for about 14 years. Prior to that, I had been going to one run by this owner's father since about 85.

2 months ago I was told at checkout that my discount would not be applied in full to "off the shelf non-subscription" books. The employee was cool about it, and kinda apologetic, so I bought the books and considered all the ramifications once I got home.

I have a pull list of probably 25 books and buy another 10 to 20 off the shelf. I spend about 25 to 40 bucks a week with a discount subscription of 30%. The off the shelf books would be only 20%. It adds up, and there were some other things that were bugging me too. Another clerk, after at least a year and waiting on me regularly (including pulling my sub list) never remembered my name. They bagged all their shelved books so you couldn't browse through 'em. My discount had been lowered about 6 years ago from 40 to 30% because I wasn't really a "premium" subscriber. So, all of this cumulatively left me with a negative taste in my mouth.

And...I know all about DCBS, comichole and instocktrades. So...I decided to write a letter to the owner and explain why I was cancelling my subscription.

It killed me to do it, but it just felt like the right thing to do.

A week later he called me at home and explained his position. He said that people will buy multiple copies of hot books off the shelf with their 30% discount, leave him without copies for customers, and then sell their discounted copies for profit. I never buy more than 1 copy per title, but I told him I could understand how that forces him to make hard business decisions.

He explained that the bagged books keep people from off the street coming in and reading books for free, never intending to buy them.

So again, this is a case of a few bad seeds almost ruining it for the rest of the customers. I say almost because he said he would maintain the 30% discount if I was still interested in being a customer.

Very impressed by his taking the time to call me and explain his position. I think that because my letter wasn't confrontational and my attitude on the phone with him was one of understanding, he extended me a "truce." I will still buy some books online, but if anything, my pull list with this store is now more substantial than it was, and I feel as if my voice was heard.

Your mileage my vary!