RETAIL // 3.07.03

THE HONEYMOON IS OVER
by Alasdair Stuart

I'm through playing games. I'm through being an ideas man, a guy who talks a good fight and walks a halfway decent one. I'm sick of not being cool enough, sicker of worrying that I'm not cool enough and most of all I am sick and damn well tired of procrastinating.

As Mick Jagger once said, right, let's do it.

Here's the plan. This column has wandered and meandered around sometimes being useful and sometimes simply being stuff from my head.

This is no longer acceptable.

RETAIL is now a schedule.

Six big ideas, ranging from renovation of the internals at my store though to opening up new channels, talking to new suppliers, selling to new people and finally getting some sort of instore literature up and running. First off, what I'm going to do, then once a month for the next six months, have I done it and how successful has it been. That simple.

NUMBER 1-Signings for Fun and Profit

A little know fact is that York actually has a better than healthy smallpress scene. The frankly wonderful RAVEN is produced entirely within the city walls, half of Comeuppance Comics have standing orders with us and even looking a little further, there are some excellent people living and working in Yorkshire.

So let's get some in to do signings.

I have a shortlist of six people, some of whom I've been talking to and some of whom I haven't yet who I'd like to get in to do a signing with us. So, here's the plan:
-Email them.
-Arrange firm dates where possible.
-Arrange publicity both within the industry and with the local press.
-Overstock their back catalogue.
-Promote the hell out of the signing.
-Keep them and customers alike entertained.

NUMBER 2-Book of the Week

I scared myself last week by putting my name into Google with the word 'review' attached to it. It would appear I've got a pretty chunky back catalogue which, oddly, dovetails neatly with the chunky back catalogue of my store.
So let's get some people's awareness raised. These reviews will be printed off, copied and placed in the following areas:

-Standing orders
-Counters at the four stores
-Local coffee shops
-Local Student Unions
-Local Borders
-The librarians I talked to in October about graphic novels.

In each case with our business cards attached. At the same time, the following happens:
-A press release is sent to the local press explaining that we are launching BOOK OF THE WEEK, an attempt to educate people about the best of the graphic novel field.
-We overstock and/or prominently display the featured book.

NUMBER 3-Stop the Presses

Bottom line is, I'm a print junkie. One of the happiest periods of my life was the six month period I spent cutting and pasting a newsletter together at University. Nothing on this Earth is more satisfying than fitting your words together on a page and fitting pictures around them.

There is no reason on God's green Earth why I can't do this again.

Plus, with idea 2 taking off we're already halfway there. By establishing BOOK OF THE WEEK as a regular event it does the following:
-Cements us in the public consciousness and raises awareness of our store
-Pointed out some of our best stock to customers who may not have noticed it.
-Planted the idea of a regular piece of print output from the shop in their minds.

So we can use idea 2 as a springboard into idea 3. This is made even easier by the fact that at the same time we'll also be printing off and distributing SAVANT to our customers. They'll be hit with a big chunk of content for minimal extra work.

NUMBER 4-New Minds, Fresh Ideas

There are great books out there that we don't carry and should. This is the most nebulous of the six ideas, and also the dullest in the short term. There's not a whole bunch of excitement to be found in emailing lots of folks and waiting to see what they say but the rewards are startling. Case in point: Three years ago we didn't order from Red Route very often. I did our graphic novel orders today and the Red Route one was three times the size of the Diamond one. So, this would involve:

-Getting contact details for Plan 9, Khepri, Cold Cut, Mars Import and numerous other small press books and creators.
-Negotiating terms with them (Retailer discounts, returnability etc)
-Working out a preliminary order.
-Promoting the new stock.
-Monitoring how successful it is.

Number 5-Spit and Polish

I spend five days a week in that shop and as a result I focus past the problems. I see the chipped paint, I see the pockmarked door but for me, all it is is added character. For customers, all it is proof we're not professional.

Time to change that.

We get the place looking better by doing the following:
-Repaint the internal door
-Repaint the back wall.
-Fill the holes using plaster
-Paint the rearmost shelving
-Alter the angle of the shelving
-Order and use signage explaining what goes where in the store.
-Put all the stock into alphabetical order (Because it's way past time)
-Get a timetable from head office for the following:
-New paintjob for the shop
-Removal of the back internal wall and renovation of the back room.
-New counter

Number 6-Pressing the Flesh

I'm good with people. I'm a good conversationalist. I'm passionate about what I do and I know my city like the back of my hand.

Those are four of the best tools any salesman can have.

Not enough people know about us. Whether it's due to our policy of non-advertising, the marginalization of the direct market or simply that we look a bit dull the bottom line is that our stock isn't present in enough places.

Time to change that. The plan is simple. Get in contact with the following people:
-Both local Student Unions
-The local library board
-The local press
-All local coffee shop and sandwich businesses
-Playgroups
-Art colleges
-Train and bus stations

I'm going to pitch the idea of our stock being sold through them. The medium gets extra exposure, we get extra capital and the businesses that go for it get something that very few other people have. And everyone gets to read some good comics.

That's the plan. The next RETAIL will detail how I've got on with the signings and whether any have got off the ground yet. If it's all been put to bed, which it almost certainly won't have been, the one after that will detail how BOOK OF THE WEEK goes and so on and so forth.

Some of these things won't work. Some may not even get off the ground but the bottom line is I'm sick of carrying this stuff around in my head. It's time to actually do instead of just say.

Stick around. It should be fun.