Owning a small business can be very rewarding. I love the interactions I have with my customers and the close bonds I build with them. But it’s not all roses and rainbows. There are some downsides as well. One in particular if you are a comic shop owner.
Ask any comic shop owner what one of the worst parts of owning the shop is...chances are high up on the list if not number 1, is getting beat on books. What I mean by that is this.
Every Wednesday, the new comics come out for the week. Most stores offer a subscription service for their regulars. It goes by many names. Pull list. Reservists. Whatever you call it, the main idea is the customer provides the list of titles they want. We pull and hold those books for said customer. It’s a win/win as it helps the shop with numbers and ordering and helps make sure the customer is held those specific books. Usually a discount is provided for these folks as well.
Sometimes folks get behind. As in this case with “Dave”. He always built it up for a couple months at a time, but now he’s stopped answering me in my last few attempts to reach out. “Dave” has broke bad. Instead of doing the decent thing and letting me know he doesn’t want them, he just acts like a complete flake and ignores and now I’ll eat $400 plus on his pile alone. This happens 25 times a year with various people. Some with only a few books, some with a healthy stack. Some after a few weeks. Some after 6 years. The fact that adults can’t act like adults and be honest with shop owners is so frustrating and disheartening.
We do a purge every quarter now to clear the dead weight. We have about 8 more reservists that are on the chopping block with totals over a grand worth of merch. They have been called, emailed, and text to hopefully do the right thing. Hopefully we get a good soul or two from this batch that have just fallen on hard times and get back to us but we’ve been doing this song and dance for years now. If I’m a betting man, I’m betting on most sadly doing the ignore routine.
Thx Dave
Steepshot
Ugh. Do you ever luck out and have a couple hot books in their stack that are already selling at a premium? I imagine that would be about the only way to mitigate some losses. Well that, and posting on Steem!
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Once in a while we do but more often than not...no. Lol
It’s just disappointing. Ya know? People that you’ve established good relationships with over time...just being completely childish and selfish. It’s terribly irresponsible.
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aye.... if that dirtbag left behind ve'nam or the new venom run.... hit me up lol
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You need a Ve’Nam? I might have one. He was a solid DC guy so outside of a couple books that we are sold out of based on their covers...nada.
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dream job as long as it pays the bills
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Don’t worry. It doesn’t. 😜
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