The Longmont, Colo., Daily Times-Call reports that Time Warp Comics is closing its Longmont store in August, because of a drop in foot traffic and competition from nearby Stonebridge Games.
Owner Wayne Winsett also cites online retailers as part of the problem: “The Internet has hurt comic book sales nationwide, it’s not just that location. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can open up a business and compete against you with no overhead at all. And that can hurt a lot of businesses, not just comic books.”
Time Warp’s Boulder location, which turns 22 this year, will remain open. “The Boulder store is doing really well,” Winsett told the newspaper. “In fact, we’re searching for a larger location for that store right now. We’re trying to find a space big enough so we can have a dedicated gaming area.”
June 9th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Shame, that. Time Warp is one of the best stores I’ve ever been to.
June 9th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
I find the “blame the internet” tack a bit disingenuous, especially when they are looking to expand their other location.
Peter David once wrote about the inherent advantage of physical stores over the internet. This advantage was the immediacy of grabbing a book and buying it over buying a book then wait for it to ship. He summed it up quite simply, “Instant gratification isn’t fast enough.”
Then again if all the store caters to are “Comic Geeks” and is not reaching out to a broader audience, then they are at risk of going away.
Judging from how they seek to expand in Boulder (”big enough so we can have a dedicated gaming area.”) they are going for the “geek clubhouse” model of business…
I’ve seen good “geek clubhouse” shops and tons of bad ones. But I don’t see how they can attract the broader customer base. The have to realize that their direct competition isn’t really from other comic shops (online or physical). It’s the bookstores they have to look out for.
As far as the Manga audience is concerned, bookstores have taken the lead, and comic shops are merely playing catch up if they are even playing at all in that sub-market.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
The manager Mike is a great guy who genuinely loves comics. I hope he opens his own shop someday!
June 10th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Speaking as one of the evil denziens of the internet who has an online store, if the brick and mortar dinosaurs would realize that they need to step up to the plate and offer something that the online retailers can’t, then they’ll do fine. If they keep playing by their same old rules, they will become extinct.
Things a Brick and Mortar dinosaur can do better than an online vendor: Hold events to get people to your store. Talk to people. Generate excitement for upcoming projects through actual real live sales pitches. Promote new comics with a “take a look at this” approach.
I plan on opening a really real live store some day, and I’m using the funds from my web store to help make that dream a reality…I also plan on making my store a kick-assed unique entity that no other brick and mortar store will be able to compete with, not just another dumb looking comic store with too much crap and far too big of an emphasis on back issues that sit there and gather dust.