Sharpening the Sword is a regular column by retailer John Riley of Grasshopper's Comics, a 1300 square foot comic and game store in
Welcome to 2007! I hope everyone had a very happy (and prosperous) holiday season. With 2006 now behind us, I thought I'd take a moment to think about the ways our industry changed over the past year before we move into the new one. The post-holiday season is always a great time to review your business plan (you did write one last year, right?) and see what went right and what went wrong and decide the direction you'll pursue in 2007.
So what changes did 2006 bring us? Here are some of the highlights:
Late books became the norm: Marvel hit an all new level of lateness when they were forced to make many of their top selling books bi-monthly in response to the production delays on Civil War. This cost us both money and customers as we lost most of the former comic fans that had returned for this event. When you look at the list of top books today lateness has become the norm and that's not good for anybody.
OP goes 'Pro': Three of this year's successful product launches came with a huge ransom attached. The World of Warcraft and Spoils CCGs, as well as the Dreamblade CMG, all came with strong tournament support featuring major cash prizes. While this definitely drew attention to them, all three were great games anyway, which leads to the question of whether it was really necessary. And at least in our area some of these cash tournaments have had much lower attendance than local sales levels would indicate. Will manufacturers pursue this as a model for new product launches?
Mass market retailers move further into the hobby niche: I don't know about you, but I know I could have sold more Blokus and Apples to Apples if they weren't in all my local big box stores. As comic and games become more mainstream we'll likely be seeing more and more of our core product showing up elsewhere. (Did you see the monster X-Men book in BJ's for Christmas?)
We continue to refuse to learn from history: One of the most frustrating experiences this year was the inability to get more than a one day supply of WoW when it launched. But the really frustrating part was getting calls from all my secondary distributors telling me I could have as much as I wanted at only $35 above retail! I guess they haven't learned from history, as I for one will be sure not to be dealing with them in '07.
HorrorClix launches returnable: In my mind this may have been the most significant development of '06. WizKids launched HorrorClix fully returnable with a free Cthulhu giant figure to every retailer that ordered a minimum amount. The company took all the risk on this launch and it paid off for everyone. Will other manufacturers adopt this policy for their future releases? I certainly hope so.
In many ways it looks like comics will be making even bigger strides into the general consciousness in 2007 with the release of the Ghost Rider and Spider-Man movies and a host of other genre movies that fit right in our stores. And with new projects being announced every day, like the Preacher HBO series, comic properties will continue to be brought to the forefront.
So where does this all leave us? Honestly, I'm not sure. Our personal goal in 2006 was to bring our store into the mainstream and attract the 'civilian,' a goal I believe we accomplished. But our core customer is now under more pressure than ever. His entertainment dollar is under assault by everything from the newest cell phones to $600 Playstations. I think pricing is the one central issue that will affect all our businesses this next year. Comics this year hit an almost universal price point of $2.99 and games seem to be launching at higher and higher price points. Of course there are those who will point out that even $100 roleplaying books experienced good sales this year. And I'll be the first to agree. Many of my customers bought them... online.
I think 2007 is going to be the year of adding value, of creating communities, of making something of your store that transcends being 'just a store.' Because as our customers are tempted by more and more forms of entertainment, we're going to have to do our absolute best to ensure that they value ours.
