I drove into downtown (hah!) Provo today to get my allergy shot, pick up a comic book or two, and grab groceries at Sam’s Club (the Walmart-owned membership warehouse).
The comic book store, Dragon’s Keep, had a big “CLOSED” sign in the front window, and the displays looked suspicously empty. I parked, walked up to the glass, and peered inside. Sure enough, it looked like the store wouldn’t be opening again, with racks emptied, furniture missing, and so forth.
I got depressed. I guess the feeling would be akin to an auto-worker hearing about plant closures. I started thinking about my own revenue stream trickle, and before long all the energy I had saved up for this afternoon’s coloring session had seeped right out of me.
I got home and called Dragon’s Keep. I got Jason on the phone, and he said “nothing’s wrong. We’re moving.” They got a great “move right now” deal on a larger store, and for the next few days things will be hectic. If/when they do a Grand Reopening, I’ll be there passing out sketches.
I feel much better now. Hey, look! There’s strips I need to color!
–Howard
CLOSED, but not that way.
And this is why a sign that reads “CLOSED: MOVING” is useful. Ideally with a note about where they’re moving to and when they might be open again at the new location. I ran into this myself when a shop I went to moved across town (not the town I live in, but one I visit roughly monthly) but the sign at the old location indicated closure and nothing more. It was a few years before I found out they were still in business.
Re: CLOSED, but not that way.
Not LAWST but GORN BEFORE……
Like the baby that washed down the plug’ole…
MOVING, not CLOSED
Yeah, that says to me that any trouble the comic industry is seeing results from lack of marketing savvy, rather than a lack of demand.
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
Which, I should add, is what has caused me problems in my small-business endeavors.
(…but not anymore, thanks to http://www.SavvyMarketeer.com! Their one-stop shop has made me rich!…)
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
Omigosh. It’s a real site. Well, don’t take my comment above as a real endorsement, a’ight?
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
You’re so silly. NEVER stick “.com” on the end of something amusing unless you really want people to end up there.
Savvy marketeer indeed.
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
So if I sent an e-mail to an enemy referencing “theeternalandevertormentingbowelsofhades.com,” would that just solve my problem right there?
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
If your enemies are stupid enough to open html-enabled emails from you, you don’t have a problem to begin with.
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
Apparently, Hades is a bad link.
I think I am a lemmming.
Re: MOVING, not CLOSED
*chuckles*
You’d think they’d put up a sign at least, so they didn’t lose business due to people not knowing where they were/what was going on.