Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Jul 9, 2014 20:22:26 GMT -6
www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/glendale/2014/07/04/west-valley-comic-book-stores-owners-anti-recession-powers/12228639/
In the depths of the recession, Avondale comic-book store owner Mike Banks was forced to sell his home in that city and move his family into his childhood home in Phoenix.
Banks faced thousands of dollars in credit-card debt and the very real possibility he would have to close one of his two comic-book stores.
"We were doing everything we could to keep above water," he said. "On a personal level and a business level, I was freaking out."
But by streamlining the stores and cutting back at home, Banks managed to keep his Samurai Comic stores open and even opened a third one in 2011. He saw his sales increase by at least 15 percent from 2012 to 2013 and he said they have trended up the last three years.
Banks' comic-book store is one of two in the West Valley that have been open more than five years.
Ken Brown, owner of Drawn to Comics in Glendale, will celebrate his store's 10th anniversary next year. While Banks and Brown have witnessed layoffs and businesses closing over the years, both have managed to survive and are even considering expanding.
Banks, 48, credits the success to the wider acceptance of being a "geek," as well as his expansion into offering games, apparel and toys.
"It used to be that our typical customer would come in and it might be a guy in his 30s. His daughter would want to leave and the wife would watch the clock," Banks said. "Now we feel like we have something for everybody. Instead of making a sale to one person in the family, we're kind of hitting on all demographics."
Sales typically don't drop — or drop too far in a recession — because new product comes in each week and comics provide an affordable form of entertainment, Brown said. And with TV shows and the movie industry embracing comics, it has "opened the whole Pandora's box to how cool comic-book stores are."
-MIKE5508.jpg_20140627.jpg
Brown and employee Chris Lopez put up posters inside the Drawn to Comics store, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.(Photo: Michael Schennum / The Republic)
Brown saw an 18 percent increase in sales from 2012 to 2013.
"For the longest time, people thought that comics were something that as a kid you read and when you grew up you stopped," Brown said. "And that's never really been the instance over the last 30 years."
Diamond Comic Distributors, the world's largest distributor of English-language comics, saw a 10 percent increase in sales in 2013, according to Jason Blanchard, an advertising and public-relations manager for Diamond.
Comic-book stores overall saw a drop in sales from 2008 to 2009, but for those who survived the downturn, sales soon increased rapidly, Blanchard said in an e-mail.
Blanchard said the increase could be a result of new customers in areas where other stores closed, as well as the rising popularity of movies and TV shows based on comic-book properties.
For Banks, the key has been adapting to the trends and knowing the ins and outs of running a store.
Banks began collecting comics in the sixth grade, but never considered the possibility of opening his own store. But after sorting comics in high school at a shop down the street from his home, and then working in that store and eventually becoming a general manager for another comic-book store chain for 11 years, he did exactly that.
Within the first year, he and his wife were doing well enough to knock out a dividing wall and expand their Phoenix store. In 2005, the couple moved out to the West Valley, where they opened a second store on the dividing line between Phoenix and Avondale.
"When we opened up the doors, we actually had a crowd of people," he said.
In 2011, after Atomic Comics, a comic-book chain in the Valley, went out of business, Banks opened up his last store in the East Valley.
While Banks has juggled three stores, Brown, 40, said he worries about maintaining the family charm he has established since he opened in 2005. If he does open another store, Brown said he would want it to mirror the first one.
He worried about the switch from 500 square feet at his first store location in Glendale to more than 2,000 square feet when he relocated nearly three years ago — not because it wasn't enough to house the thousands of comics in his supply, but because it could mean losing a personal connection with the people who visited his store.
Brown even created Captain Customer, the store's mascot, to remind him who keeps the store in business.
"It's not about me and the store, it's about what we do to make sure the customers are happy," Brown said. "If they're happy then they'll keep on coming back."
Although Banks and Brown have seen many comic-book stores open across the Valley over the past few years, both agreed on the thing needed for such a business to survive: passion.
"There's a lot of transition in the industry. It's not something you do for fun, you do it because you know it and because you love it," Brown said. "If you have no passion for this, there's no reason to open a shop."
In the depths of the recession, Avondale comic-book store owner Mike Banks was forced to sell his home in that city and move his family into his childhood home in Phoenix.
Banks faced thousands of dollars in credit-card debt and the very real possibility he would have to close one of his two comic-book stores.
"We were doing everything we could to keep above water," he said. "On a personal level and a business level, I was freaking out."
But by streamlining the stores and cutting back at home, Banks managed to keep his Samurai Comic stores open and even opened a third one in 2011. He saw his sales increase by at least 15 percent from 2012 to 2013 and he said they have trended up the last three years.
Banks' comic-book store is one of two in the West Valley that have been open more than five years.
Ken Brown, owner of Drawn to Comics in Glendale, will celebrate his store's 10th anniversary next year. While Banks and Brown have witnessed layoffs and businesses closing over the years, both have managed to survive and are even considering expanding.
Banks, 48, credits the success to the wider acceptance of being a "geek," as well as his expansion into offering games, apparel and toys.
"It used to be that our typical customer would come in and it might be a guy in his 30s. His daughter would want to leave and the wife would watch the clock," Banks said. "Now we feel like we have something for everybody. Instead of making a sale to one person in the family, we're kind of hitting on all demographics."
Sales typically don't drop — or drop too far in a recession — because new product comes in each week and comics provide an affordable form of entertainment, Brown said. And with TV shows and the movie industry embracing comics, it has "opened the whole Pandora's box to how cool comic-book stores are."
-MIKE5508.jpg_20140627.jpg
Brown and employee Chris Lopez put up posters inside the Drawn to Comics store, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year.(Photo: Michael Schennum / The Republic)
Brown saw an 18 percent increase in sales from 2012 to 2013.
"For the longest time, people thought that comics were something that as a kid you read and when you grew up you stopped," Brown said. "And that's never really been the instance over the last 30 years."
Diamond Comic Distributors, the world's largest distributor of English-language comics, saw a 10 percent increase in sales in 2013, according to Jason Blanchard, an advertising and public-relations manager for Diamond.
Comic-book stores overall saw a drop in sales from 2008 to 2009, but for those who survived the downturn, sales soon increased rapidly, Blanchard said in an e-mail.
Blanchard said the increase could be a result of new customers in areas where other stores closed, as well as the rising popularity of movies and TV shows based on comic-book properties.
For Banks, the key has been adapting to the trends and knowing the ins and outs of running a store.
Banks began collecting comics in the sixth grade, but never considered the possibility of opening his own store. But after sorting comics in high school at a shop down the street from his home, and then working in that store and eventually becoming a general manager for another comic-book store chain for 11 years, he did exactly that.
Within the first year, he and his wife were doing well enough to knock out a dividing wall and expand their Phoenix store. In 2005, the couple moved out to the West Valley, where they opened a second store on the dividing line between Phoenix and Avondale.
"When we opened up the doors, we actually had a crowd of people," he said.
In 2011, after Atomic Comics, a comic-book chain in the Valley, went out of business, Banks opened up his last store in the East Valley.
While Banks has juggled three stores, Brown, 40, said he worries about maintaining the family charm he has established since he opened in 2005. If he does open another store, Brown said he would want it to mirror the first one.
He worried about the switch from 500 square feet at his first store location in Glendale to more than 2,000 square feet when he relocated nearly three years ago — not because it wasn't enough to house the thousands of comics in his supply, but because it could mean losing a personal connection with the people who visited his store.
Brown even created Captain Customer, the store's mascot, to remind him who keeps the store in business.
"It's not about me and the store, it's about what we do to make sure the customers are happy," Brown said. "If they're happy then they'll keep on coming back."
Although Banks and Brown have seen many comic-book stores open across the Valley over the past few years, both agreed on the thing needed for such a business to survive: passion.
"There's a lot of transition in the industry. It's not something you do for fun, you do it because you know it and because you love it," Brown said. "If you have no passion for this, there's no reason to open a shop."