Paul Stock of Librairie Astro in Montreal, Canada comments on the news of Marvel helping out new stores (see "Marvel Gives New Stores a Boost").
As a store that can't qualify for Marvel's new store assistance initiative (we've been around since 1984), I can't help but applaud their gesture. I know we're likely to hear complaints of them working to the disadvantage of long-time supporters, to hear retailer complaints of favoritism and so on, but despite them doing the inverse of the "Everyone knows you shouldn't treat new friends better than old friends."
Ally commercials truism, I feel that they are somewhat helping us "old friends" by working to expand the marketplace. The more stores there are, the more visible the medium is, and someone who finds and comes to enjoy comics through checking out that "new little shop that just opened down the block, whatever it is," may well go on to look for other places that carry their paper pastimes. That's us established "faded into the background" places. An "old-line" comic shop can be pretty intimidating place to the uninitiated. We're generally crammed to the rafters with a bewildering assortment of product, not just current releases, but items stretching back over decades. A new reader just doesn't know where to start. But new stores, no matter what they may carry, have a tendency to be more spacious, more inviting to the casual browser, and today's casual browser may well become tomorrow's "Marvel Zombie" (or "EC fan-addict"), growing comfortable with the inevitable clutter as the store fills.
Anyways, anything that publishers actually do that helps grow the industry, whether it helps me directly or not, is welcome as far as I'm concerned. I do hope, though, that Marvel can provide some extra help in stocking suggestions, based on whatever demographic the retailer can provide- something a little beyond their traditional (and useless) "It has a big "M" on it- buy lots!"
And you know, given today's trend towards using slat and gridwall everywhere, maybe they could revive a more durable version of those delightful old (and well-branded) Marvel "power pockets"...