Why aren't mainstream comics sold in grocery stores anymore? Why aren't digital comics marketed more heavily?
Comic books have supposedly been in a sales slump for ages now, and I'd be willing to bet a large part of that is the fact that the only way to get a comic in a store these days is to go to a LCS which has a massive stigma attached to it.
Archie's been going solid for decades, and I still see him on the shelf at checkout every time I go to the grocery. Why not Spider-man? Why not Superman?
You want sales? You want an audience that you don't have to piss off to get any kind of response? Make your comics visible to a general audience. It's pretty fucking simple.
Has DC or Marvel ever explained their idiotic behavior?
who the fuck buys archie comics in grocery stores anyways?
it would do functionally nothing except lower the already pretty low perception of comic books
Jacob Richardson
also look at those books, they are fucking thick as shit
you going to sell floppers with boards in bags at the grovery store? sell full tradebacks along with the gum and chocolate bars? it just wouldn't work
Luis Clark
>who the fuck buys archie comics in grocery stores anyways? Apparently enough people to keep archie comics in grocery stores
>it would do functionally nothing How do you figure? If a tiny fraction of a percent of the people who shop at the grocery impulse buy a real comic for their kid that's one more kid who might become a regular reader who never would've been exposed otherwise.
Nolan Adams
>also look at those books, they are fucking thick as shit Jesus, have you been outside of your room in the last 10 years? The image is double digest volumes, the individual comics at checkout are much smaller, not to mention they sell paper-thin tabloid "magazines" in the exact same spot.
Jackson Wood
>Why aren't mainstream comics sold in grocery stores anymore?
Because of the Direct Market. Read up on the history of comics distribution in the 1980s.
William Adams
>Why aren't mainstream comics sold in grocery stores anymore? Why aren't digital comics marketed more heavily?
It's all about profit.
Back when comics were at Grocery stores or Newsstands they got the same deal as other periodicals. All unsold copies could be returned for a refund.
Comic book store pay for the comics and then sell them to customers, so if a store buy 100 copies of Batman and only sells 50 DC still profits from those 100.
Blake Lopez
OK, so that might have been effective in the 80s, but shouldn't they change it now that apparently less and less people go to LCS?
Easton Cruz
Presumably the idea would be to do what archie is doing. Which is to sell a bunch of repackaged older stories with one or two new stories thrown in there in a digest format.
It works for Archie because it's essentially pretty timeless, but for comics I guess it can get confusing having 70's and 80's stories run alongside modern ones. Though I guess you could just do something like an "Avengers Digest" where they reprint old Avengers floppies, and get some artists/writers to make 10 pages or so of new stories set in the old universe. They've got tons of old stories to fall back on so I don't know why they won't.
Mason Perez
I miss the days when Stop&Shop had a comics rack. Then again, that was back when they had an actual book section, rather than the paltry corner they have now.
Asher Gutierrez
The things is, there is a shitton of comics published today.
Back in the day, the reason Phil Seuling and co. founded the direct market was because newsttands would order Spider-Man one month, then Green Lantern the next, and then Betty & Veronica after that. It was unreasonably difficult for fans to keep up with specific books if they shipped either very late or outright skipped issues.
And these days you just can't shake the image that comics are something you fead over a period of time, and that you need comic book stores to make sure you find them.
Ryder Gutierrez
Not American, are newsstands still widespread? Are newsstands one-man businesses? Or part of a larger company? Supermarkets are often part of chains, so isn't it easy to make deals with these larger companies to have specific comics in the supermarkets for a longer period?
And there's a LOT of different comics, but DC, Marvel, Image, etc. could all select some "entry-level" comics to have in supermarkets. Like Batman, Spider-Man, Walking Dead.. Then maybe there's no Green Lantern in any supermarkets, but it *will* be easier for kids to get to know GL when they've already read Batman, than to get to know GL without having read comics before.
Jackson Thompson
Also, kids aren't difficult, they'll just pick up anything that looks cool. They're not thinking about story arcs or whatever.
Gavin Jackson
>Why aren't mainstream comics sold in grocery stores anymore?
Cause grocery stores would rather stock something else that they feel would make them money.
>And there's a LOT of different comics, but DC, Marvel, Image, etc. could all select some "entry-level" comics to have in supermarkets.
What you see at a Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million magazine section is what a grocery store might get. Archie, Bongo, some DC (usually Batman, Detective, Action, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern). There's a catalog that lists all the comics that a newsstand market/grocery store/bookstore could purchase monthly but I can't remember the URL.
Christian Cooper
>but shouldn't they change it now that apparently less and less people go to LCS?
No because less and less people buy magazines at the grocery store. Seriously have you not noticed this in the last eight years? Grocery stores have seriously reduced their magazine sections.
Christopher Smith
Because demographics. It isn't comic book geeks that spend huge chunks of their time in the grocery store. It's the housewives, trophy spouses that are regulars: hungry for junk food and drama. Real life celebrity drama, not drawn comic drama.
Tyler Hill
They did use to have Image Comics on the newsstand. But by the end of the 90's only Spawn and maybe some Top Cow stuff had newsstand editions.
Tyler Howard
>There's a catalog that lists all the comics that a newsstand market/grocery store/bookstore could purchase monthly but I can't remember the URL.
Here's a screencap of the catalog showing all the comics they offer to newsstands, grocery stores, bookstores, and so on. There may be some others that I missed since I haven't checked the entire catalog to see if there's mislabelings, but this is all the stuff that's listed under "comic".
And in case anyone was wondering why Marvel only has one title, Marvel pulled all their titles out of newsstand distribution years ago.
Liam Morgan
I recognize that with the sheer amount of comics out there it's necessary to have specialty stores, but they have absolutely no mainstream exposure anymore. You're not going to buy or get into comics unless someone you know takes you to a LCS which is a terrible model
Austin Bailey
Just go to Japan.
Get a 1500-page weekly.
Benjamin Myers
>Because demographics. It isn't comic book geeks that spend huge chunks of their time in the grocery store You realize the idea is to draw in more casual readers who wouldn't be caught dead in a LCS, right?
The comic consumer base is small and incestuous right now, DC and Marvel have been desperate to grow that base but they've thrown everything into new comics that their targeted demos will never ever see instead of re-examining their distribution model.
James Watson
Wow, thanks. So grocery stores/supermarkets can already sell DC comics, but they choose not to? And that's all weeklies right. Doesn't DC have this problem Image Comics had () that they lose money on some titles? And it seems only Archie has these digest type comic books. Wouldn't that work for DC/Marvel as well? That's an idea someone else offered Or some sort of cheap TPB or something I don't know. Isn't any kid that starts reading any version of Batman/Spider-Man a potential future LCS client?
Now that you mention it.. it's probably gotten smaller, also where I live. But comics aren't your typical magazines. While other magazines get discontinued, because everything that's in the magazine can be found online, comic magazines still have this physical appeal. There's still money to be made with them. And we're not looking at housewives () shopping all by themselves here, but at kids (maybe shopping with their moms) who are drawn to comic drama. There are plenty of kids at grocery stores/supermarkets right?
Sorry if what I'm saying doesn't make any sense, I'm just a little confused because it's all a little different from where I live. In the Netherlands there's pretty much no such thing as newsstands on the streets, and supermarkets almost always have a few comics/comic magazines for sale that are really quite popular with kids (Donald Duck mostly). With superheroes being so popular in the States, probably more so because of TV and movies, it's really quite strange to me the comics are not for sale in every supermarket.
Blake Murphy
>With superheroes being so popular in the States The thing is that while superheroes are ubiquitously branded and very popular, their comics aren't. People prefer basically any version of a superhero that isn't a comic book.
Despite the massive popularity of superhero media there's still a stigma attached to reading comic books or going to a place where they're sold.
Evan Phillips
But while older kids and adults may have their reasons not to read any comic books, younger kids are open to everything. And they are the future of the comic book industry. Kids have Batman lunchboxes and wear Spider-Man pajamas, they like that stuff even if they've never read a comic book before. I think they would be interested if they'd see the comics when grocery shopping.
Samuel Reyes
We do sell certain comics in high street news agents / supermarkets in Britain. they tend to be combo comics combining multiple solo books and run about 6 months to a year behind the current issues.
Ryan Moore
The local grocery stores around here still sell DC comics.
Mason Martinez
>Megaman (Freq: 12/yr) >Afterlife with Archie (Freq: 10/yr)
Wyatt Gutierrez
You're absolutely right. The stigma doesn't exist for kids, the reason they don't get hooked in is mainly due to lack of exposure.
Liam Roberts
OK, so probably more bang for your buck (or pound sterling). At least better than 4 dollar for 24 pages.
Ayden Kelly
Also, apparently DC finds it profitable to sell at grocery stores, and Marvel doesn't. Interesting how Marvel doesn't sell their biggest titles there.
