The 2009 Will Eisner Spirit of Retailing Award, which is given out annually to an individual retailer “who has done an outstanding job of supporting the comics art medium both in the community and within the industry at large,” was awarded to Tate’s Comics of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

In 1993 the 17-year-old Tate Ottati opened an after school hours comic book shop that he financed by selling Marvel stock (at just the right time) that he had purchased while studying the stock market in a high school economics class.  Starting with a 1,000 foot store, Tate, a long time comics collector, quickly diversified his product mix adding anime and manga.  In 1996 Tate met Amanda, the woman who would become his wife, at the store, and soon her influence diversified the store’s offerings even more. 

 

Creating a sense of community is a major priority at Tate’s where in a monthly contest customers create sticker designs, the best of which earns the designer $20 in store credit and is given out in sticker form to every customer that month.

 

In 2002 Tate’s moved to its present location (4566 North University Dr., Lauderhill, Florida) in Lauderhill’s historic “Promenade Shops.”  In October of 2003 Tate opened Tate’s Gaming Satellite, a space for selling and playing games located just a few doors down from the main store.  The Gaming Satellite, which began with just 500 square feet, has now expanded to more than 2000 square feet.

 

In 2006, when the shop next door became vacant, Tate expanded the main store by 2000 feet, giving him over 6,000 square feet of retail space, and allowing him to include an art gallery and boutique, The Bear and Bird Boutique + Gallery, in a 700 sq. ft loft area.  The Gallery, which focuses on showcasing new artists, has been a great success and added to the lure of what Miami’s City Link magazine called, “a pop-culture junkie’s paradise.”