Game Store vs. Comic Book Shop

Due to some events that have happened in my local area recently, I was
inspired to write this and the corresponding post on my Zanziber's Point of View blog.



My local game store, Borderlands Games, knows its stuff when it comes to RPG's, CCG's, miniatures and board games. Just because they carry the latest comic books does not make them a comic book shop, though... at least by my definition. IMHO, in order to be considered a "comic book shop", you should not only offer current issues, but also have a healthy supply of back issues including issues that could possibly draw in collectors (i.e. key issues, graded comics, variants, etc.). This is by no means my entire definition, but I think you get the idea.



You would no more expect every games store to carry comic books than you should expect a comic book shop to deal in the secondary market or CCG cards (buying/trading).



Now, stemmed from recent local events, I feel the need to speak on customer service.



To any managers of game stores, I would hope that you read this and take it into consideration within your own domain. Your employee's are a reflection of your store to the public. If they bad-mouth the competition to customers who may be dropping-in for the first time, you will not receive repeat customers and this will create negative word-of-mouth. If your employee engages in a one-sided debate towards said customer about all the seemingly negative aspects of the competition, this will leave a lasting impression and a bad taste in the mouths of those that experienced the event in question.