Opening a new brick and mortar shop 13 13

[The Lions Den]

1 hour ago, lighthouse said:

Would I do it again? Absolutely. 

I had 8 healthy days off in 2019. Worked 332 hours in December and another 309 last month. But there’s nothing I’d rather be doing. 

Yes it’s been profitable. Though the ROI hasn’t nearly matched what I could still make working for other people. But there’s a point at which the value of the existing back issue inventory climbs faster (without new acquisitions) than the business’ (or my personal) expenses. And that tipping point is probably only three to five years away. 

I thoroughly enjoyed your story; thank you. It was well written, informative, insightful and exciting. I certainly wish you all the best and I hope 2020 is a great year for you, both personally and professionally...  

[Krismusic]

I enjoyed your story, it has been very entertaining and insight full to what comic book store owners go through. I look forward to more of your stories as well.. 

Also you haven't reveled the name of your store? Do you think you will soon? or at least tell that story... 5k sign and all  

[lighthouse]

47 minutes ago, Krismusic said:

I enjoyed your story, it has been very entertaining and insight full to what comic book store owners go through. I look forward to more of your stories as well.. 

Also you haven't reveled the name of your store? Do you think you will soon? or at least tell that story... 5k sign and all  

I’m not really here to sell stuff. And by not giving that information early on I can be more forthright about how things are going (without my competitors having info they can use).

But I’m sure I will eventually. Definitely if Greggy makes the trip to look at sweet sweet DCs. 

[THE_BEYONDER]

[fastballspecial]

I enjoy the stories and the data. A lot of makes perfect sense. Locally my shops don't sell many slabs either they consign them away. 
We forget sometimes we are smaller part of larger comic economy.

 

[Zonker]

12 hours ago, lighthouse said:

 There’s only one Hammer. There’s only one Bug. 

Good one, 'House.  Welcome back.

[thunsicker]

Did I miss the reveal of the store name and location?  Or is a year and a half after starting the story still too early to let the cat out of the bag?

[mr_highgrade]

7 hours ago, thunsicker said:

Did I miss the reveal of the store name and location?  Or is a year and a half after starting the story still too early to let the cat out of the bag?

He's still waiting for the Gregster to pop in to check his sweet DC's before he reveals all. 

[Krismusic]

16 hours ago, lighthouse said:

I’m not really here to sell stuff. And by not giving that information early on I can be more forthright about how things are going (without my competitors having info they can use).

But I’m sure I will eventually. Definitely if Greggy makes the trip to look at sweet sweet DCs. 

not a problem... was just curious.. I guess all in do time right. 

Anyways any interesting updates or stories to continue with that you would like to share? 

[revat]

Are there any titles you carry that seem to sell exceptionally well at your store compared to regional or national trends?  Or any titles that do not sell well in your store relative to regional or national trends?  If so, any opinions on why that may be?  (this question mostly relates to new comics, but you might be able to apply it to graphic novels or other merchandise as well)

 

Also, do you do any type of demographic breakdown of customers and what they buy, and/or do you think there's value in that?

[lighthouse]

1 hour ago, revat said:

Are there any titles you carry that seem to sell exceptionally well at your store compared to regional or national trends?  Or any titles that do not sell well in your store relative to regional or national trends?  If so, any opinions on why that may be?  (this question mostly relates to new comics, but you might be able to apply it to graphic novels or other merchandise as well)

 

Also, do you do any type of demographic breakdown of customers and what they buy, and/or do you think there's value in that?

Looking at the table from last year, it's clear that Firefly, Buffy, Rick and Morty, and Marvel Action Spider-Man all dramatically outsold the national averages. I doubt there are any other shops in the country where Firefly made the top 10, much less #6. No issue of Firefly, Buffy, or Rick and Morty was in Diamond's top 500 single issues last year, so seeing the aggregate in the top 16 for those four titles is certainly exceptional.

Some things are going to sell better because the staff pushes them. Our staff loves Ice Cream Man and A Walk Through Hell, so I wouldn't be surprised if we sell 5 times as many of those trades as a typical shop our size. If no one on staff happens to love a title that would otherwise sell well, we aren't talking about it, and we only get the sales that are customer-driven. We ask customers often what they are enjoying. That question serves multiple purposes. Assuming the question is earnest, it shows we care and aren't just cashiers clearing a line. It helps us handsell additional items to the customer we are asking (oh, if you're loving that you might try this). And it helps us stay on top of what is good. And if we know that Bug and Hammer have similar tastes, hearing from Bug that the new run of Aquaman is great can help us find things for Hammer to read.

I suspect that the biggest reason we sell more of the "tv" comics is that we have a ridiculous amount of foot traffic. We are an A store rather than a B store. So if we see 200 people through the door in a given day, 150 of them were passing our front door on the way to somewhere else. Those 150 customers are much more likely to pick up episodic stories rather than trying to catch up on years of continuity. The 50 who drove specifically to us will have different purchasing habits than the 150 walking by.

We track more demographic data than we probably need to. But mostly for the purposes of determining ad spend. The purchasing decisions aren't something we really tie to the demographics, even though there are definite correlations. People of color are far more likely to buy titles featuring characters of color. LGBT customers are far more likely to buy titles featuring LGBT characters (and are also more likely to buy sex-positive titles). But with most of the titles, the only chance of predicting what someone will like is seeing what tattoos they have.

[cd4ever]

Nice to hear from you again Lighthouse.  I still remember one of my better days was when I went down to San Antonio to visit some friends and ended up spending like 4 hours in your store and ended up leaving with almost 2 short boxes worth of back issues.  And I only left because the 2 girls who drove me there were asleep in the car and ready to ditch me. At the time it was one of the best back issue selections I had seen in a brick and mortar. Glad you're doing well.  Wonderful story.  

Edited February 13, 2020 by cd4ever

[lighthouse]

On 9/2/2018 at 1:36 PM, lighthouse said:

There's a lot more story to tell, and I plan to chart more of the changes over time. But I can give some of the early numbers.

After one month open, we had 31 pull customers. Between them they were getting 156 titles. Total number of copies was roughly 170, counting the folks who got both covers of DCs, multiple covers of IDW, etc. That doesn't double count the twice-monthly titles, so in the 156 number, a sub getting Batman would count as 1 (rather than the 2 actual issues each month).

After two months open, we had 54 pull customers. Between them they were getting 270 titles. Total copy count around 305. Later on we did a better job of tracking the multiple copy folks, so the numbers are a tiny bit fuzzy early.

And that's obviously just what was subscribed to, not total spending. There are some subs who literally only pick up the titles on their pulls. But most subscribe to 10 and actually buy 14, that sort of thing.

In the very beginning we would start a pull for someone for as few as one title. We did that in the beginning to be as "friendly" as possible with new customers. But the deadbeat rate for single-title subs winds up around 55%. And while it isn't that big of a deal to ultimately yank 3 or 4 consecutive issues of Darth Vader out of a box and put them back on the shelves or tables, the overhead associated with getting the pull set up isn't worth it. So later on we set a 3-title minimum. We miss out on a few people that might have started with 1 title and ultimately grown into 5 or 6, but it saves the grief. Making polite nagging phone calls to a 6-title deadbeat sub is easier than trying to call someone about the whopping 4 books in their box.

This is a good post to update.

At the end of the first year we were sitting at just over 100 pull customers and 950 titles. If someone was getting both covers of Batman that counts as two "titles" for this purpose. But doesn't take into account books like Batman and Amazing Spider-Man that were coming out twice a month. So both covers of Batman would count as "2", not as the actual 4 comics or 1 as the actual number of discrete titles.

At the end of the second year we were sitting at around 140 pull customers (and had had around 240 people cycle through to result in 140 net) and 1250 titles.

Currently we sit around 160 pull customers and 1450 titles. At any given time there are 10-15 pull customers on a watch list, with 3-5 of those in a purgatory box where we are still holding their books for them but not adding any new ones to the pile. If the folks stay in purgatory longer than 2 weeks and we haven't made satisfactory contact, the books come back out and go back on the shelves or in the back issue boxes. We tell customers they need to pick up every 2-3 weeks, but we don't actually get concerned until 4 weeks. That's when we start calling with "hey haven't seen you in a while". If we can't reach them we continue pulling for two more weeks, then purgatory.

We kept a 3-title minimum for quite a while. But we have now shifted to a 5-title minimum. If someone has 4 and we get a good vibe we might bend it a bit, but there was just too much turnover at 3 titles.

There's really no rhyme or reason to which subs become deadbeats. We have had subs get 40 titles a month for two years and then just ghost. We've had people fall behind, get caught up, fall behind again and disappear. But we have found to recovery rate from "six weeks behind" to be around 20%. 4 out of 5 customers who get 6 weeks behind never recover. So we pay as close attention as we can to the folks at 3-4 weeks behind in hopes of catching them before a shame spiral sets in.

[lighthouse]

1 hour ago, cd4ever said:

Nice to hear from you again Lighthouse.  I still remember one of my better days was when I went down to San Antonio to visit some friends and ended up spending like 4 hours in your store and ended up leaving with almost 2 short boxes worth of back issues.  And I only left because the 2 girls who drove me there were asleep in the car and ready to ditch me. At the time it was one of the best back issue selections I had seen in a brick and mortar. Glad you're doing well.  Wonderful story.  

And in retrospect had I stuck that collection in a closet it would be worth over $1.5m now. I remember being so excited I got triple Overstreet for the Amazing Adventures 11. And then the buyer had it graded at 9.6. I've heard story after story from friends about how the books they got from that collection later came back at 9.6 or 9.8. But oh well.

FWIW, the selection at the current store dwarfs what we had back then. I doubt we ever had more than 500 Silver Age books out at a time at that shop, and we have 1200-1500 out every day now. Bronze Age is sitting around 2500 issues out on the tables, with around 2000 of those in 9.0 or better. But I definitely have fond memories of that store.

Sigh, we were all so much younger then.

[Malavin]

Have you an update on how you’ve been affected by the COVID pandemic? Hope you and your family are well. 

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 2/13/2020 at 7:21 PM, lighthouse said:

 Bronze Age is sitting around 2500 issues out on the tables, with around 2000 of those in 9.0 or better. 

I’m looking for NM+ copies of FF 129 & Hulk 162