Jim Crocker of Modern Myths, LLC in Northampton, Massachusetts read Tony Cade's Talk Back regarding the displaying of new comics (see "Tony Cade of The Dragon's Horde on New Comic Section") and weighs in on the subject:

Tony Cade opened the "New Section or not?" can of worms the other day, and I figured I'd weigh in with our approach, and the philosophy behind it.

Let me start by saying that I suspect this is one of those questions where there is sincere disagreement between smart people of good character who can provide solid evidence their approach works.  For them.  So please read the following with that in mind; there are plenty of retailers whose opinions I otherwise respect who don't do it this way, and at the end of the day, it's a very small part of any of our overall approaches.

All that said, we do not have a separate 'New This Week' section for periodicals.  We DO have one for trades and hobby games, in the form of a large, fancy 'flat-top' table display like customers would expect to see in a mass-market book chain.  We rack comics by genre, as opposed to publisher, so we've got sections for superheroes, SF/Fantasy/Horror, Crime/War/Adventure, Contemporary Fiction, Criticism/How-To, etc.  New comics get a yellow 'header' card that says 'New This Week' that sticks out over the top of the book and brands it with the font we use for our store logo.

There are four or five main reasons I prefer this approach to a separate 'new periodicals' section; in particular order:

- It eliminates the problem of mixing genres, particularly the conundrum of how to keep kids' comics out where kids can find them and not next to mature titles. (The genre racking is also how those first-time or very occasional customers (or 'strangers', as Kendall put it) are used to looking for stuff in regular bookstores).

- It greatly helps with traffic flow.  The customers, regulars and casual readers alike, walk the entire rack, and don't all clump up in one spot.  There's much less pressure to 'grab and go' as other regulars line up to get at the new release rack.

- Less handling of the books.  We're certainly not 'Mint Nazis' by any stretch, but one fewer time the staff needs to handle the book cuts down not only on shelfwear, but also labor.  Waking the rack to yank the leftover tabs on Tuesday evening is way less work than having to re-shelve all the books every week.

- Volume fluctuations are much less problematic.  A problem that, IMO, has gotten much, much worse over the last half-decade or so is the 'feast or famine' nature of erratic new comics shipments.  It's hard to set aside a dedicated area when you don't know whether it'll be half-empty or bursting at the seams any given week.  We prefer a situation where we have area set aside for all the titles we'll be stocking, and then letting that ebb and flow (with any gaps filled by TPBs, of course) as volume demands.

- That's the way the rest of the world does it.  Magazine racks in big box stores, newsstands, and the CVS all rack everything by genre, with no 'new this week' section.  It's solely an artifact of comic shops (and the arguably self-destructive 7-day obsession Kendall discussed).  Giving people the same setup they find everywhere else is helpful.

- And finally, and this is arguably the most important: I believe that while it may slightly inconvenience the 'regulars' not to have it, it's a huge barrier to entry for the strangers.  To someone who's never been in your shop, it's ALL 'new this week.'  Making life as easy as possible for them should be your goal, because they're the bread and butter.  Yes, the regulars are important, but the nature of the hobby is that they'll easily and quickly adapt to whatever system you set up if they like you and your shop.  They'll even come back if you make a mistake.  As Kendall mentioned in his discussion of his past as wedding planner, with the strangers you may only get one shot, so making life easy for them by having all the Spider-Man comics, up to and including the one that came in yesterday, in one easy-to-find place, is always priority one for me.

Now, I am sure some very smart people will come along with very good arguments of their own for why different setups work for them.  I'm looking forward to hearing them and would love to see some pics.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.