I was at a Meijers grocery store recently and I stumbled upon their two huge wobbly spinner racks of comic books. I spent about 10 minutes browsing the titles and flipping through some of the books. I think it was more nostalgia for me, since 20 years ago, the only place I was buying comics were grocery and drug stores...from these big overstuffed spinner racks, with comics flopping out all over the place.

Of course, these days I'm a loyal comic shop patron, and all my comics arrive neat, crisp, bagged, and untouched, but I still had that desire to pick up something from the ol' floppy rack (mint condition be damned).

So would you buy a comic from a grocery store these days?

If they were bagged and boarded on the rack, sure.

Condition I think is the main reason I would avoid buying from the racks today, but it never used to matter to me that much. I certainly wasn't looking to resell what I was buying then, and the majority of modern books have little to no resale value. So what does it matter really?

No, probably not. If a grocery store sold some sort of anthology though, I would definitely buy that from there, or a drug store.

Dang, I still remember picking up X-Men #94 at my local drug store because I thought the new characters looked interesting. Wasn't in a flop rack, though.

Some sort of shelf then?

The pharmacy I grew up near used to sell comics on two selves, like you see magazines in at gas stations. The comics were in good shape, but they didn't get good titles.

I personally wouldn't for the same reasons already mentioned (condition, loyalty to comic shop), but I think it's a good idea just to create accessibility of comics for the average person who doesn't know Comic Shops even exist.

Yes, like Peep's they were on small magazine-type shelves. I doubt they had even a dozen different titles.

I can remember back in 1989, I was hunting and hunting for a copy of Punisher Annual #2 (Atlantis Attacks!), I finally found ONE copy crunched in one of these spinner racks. It had a big crease down the cover, so I actually had my mom IRON it.


I had very few chances to visit a real comic shop back then. When I did, I'd almost go into shock at the sheer volume of new options available.

not sure if you meant it this way, but .

Sad to say, no for me. But it's nice that they're still out there. That's where all my first comics came from.. the spinner rack in Allen's on Main Street, Royersford, PA (look for it in the upcoming film "The Lovely Bones".. hehe). Sadly Allen's doesn't exist anymore, but they put the signs and all up for the film.