Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics and Games in Whippany, New Jersey read Ben Falconer's remark on possibly droppings subscribers (see "Ben Falconer of Phoenix Comics on Falling Comic Book Sales") and had this to say.

Like Ben, I have sometimes considered ending the pull and hold service at my store.  I've often wondered if by not having a reserve system, would it force my customers to come in on a weekly basis?  I'm hardly sure that it would.  I do have a longtime friend who has a pull service at his store, but he does not emphasize it.  The majority of his customers buy off the rack.  He has been in business 22 years so it obviously works for him.  I prefer having some sort of certainty as to a minimum number of books I can sell each month.  This has always been true, but especially now with so many casual customers disappearing as well.

As an aside, so many of our pull and holds aren't weekly either--the nature of the service has them coming in once every 2-3 weeks.  Some come in even more sporadically.  To protect the store and minimize my risk, I won't open a box without a customer giving us a credit card to put on file.  Hey, my bills come in every week even if they don't.  I guess each retailer has to decide what works best for him. I'm going to keep pull & hold going till the end.  For me, I think it's much more dangerous to try it the other way.

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