Noah Broessel of Pop Culture Paradise in Tempe, Arizona sent us his store's experience with Free Comic Book Day (for others, see 'FCBD Success Stories') and his thoughts on Donald Riordan's comments on Marvel's subscription ads (see 'Donald Riordan of Future Dreams on Marvel Sub Ads'):
FCBD Saturday:
The Positives: I did twice the Saturday sales on FCBD this year with NO separate advertising for the event, nor could I afford to fluff up the store with costumed characters and $1,000 a day creators. People like my store for the great prices and cool atmosphere (i.e., I can't afford it).
People who came were happy because I gave away at least two FCBD comics per person and I refused to put a store stamp or annoying stickers on the comics. Most customers appreciated that and felt it unnecessary. Some stores put a special sticker on the comics which were hard to get off and not only did that store pay extra $$$ and time for it, they annoyed the customer.
The Negatives: The date! I agree with another retailer that a good chunk of cool comic stores are in or near college towns which have ZERO walk-by traffic after mid-May and especially 4th of July weekend!
Me - 'Hey don't forget about FCBD next week!'
Customer - 'Yeah, sounds cool but we'll be out of town, at the lake, drinking, BBQ-ing, etc.'
The shirts were late and several promo items didn't arrive or were late. All in all it was positive, next year if they do it in April-May it will be perfect! They should pick a weekend with NOTHING going on BUT this event!
Marvel subscriptions:
Positives: none? Maybe a neutral is that people that take this offer don't get the comic until at least three weeks after us and they'll come running back once they realize this. Most direct store customers aren't going to take this offer.
Negatives: Marvel is attempting to move customers from my store directly to them. Marvel could omit the ads for direct market books and keep them at the newsstands (which is what they will claim is the intended market for the ads), but then, when was the last time you saw a comics rack at Walgreen's, a grocery store etc.? They should cancel subscriptions altogether and just put a full-page ad for the comic book locator service.