Comic Shop Spotlight: Critical Threat Comics
Aug 22, 2016
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Critical Threat Comics in Tempe, Arizona.
OWNER: Jeremy Champe, Jessica Fishell
MANAGER: Lauren Alexander
NUMBER OF LOCATIONS: 1
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 5
YEAR OPENED: 2015
STORE SIZE (square feet): 2,100
Favorite Recent Comic Book: Monstress has really impressed us, and our customers seem to agree.
How was your Halloween ComicFest event? It was very good! We had some local creators and cosplayers come out and hang with the kids. We also had a paint your own zombie action figure station that was very popular with the children. Next year, we want to do face painting and such. We love the event!
What has been your best promotion or event? Our Black Friday / Small Business Saturday sale event was our biggest so far.
What recent changes have you made in the store? We laid new flooring, changed the layout, and refocused our inventory. We are heading more in the TPB/GN direction and almost completely stopped ordering incentive variants.
What steps have you taken to expand your customer base or to reach out to individuals unfamiliar with your store or comics in general? We have run ads in local newspapers, gave out fliers at the college campus, and had booths at local conventions. We are attempting to reach new customers with book clubs, new reader/player events, and social media campaigns. Also, we try to stock items we believe will appeal to new comic readers.
What are your plans for the near future? We plan to get new fixtures, expand our TPB section even more, and run events for all different types of people. We also want to expand our children's section and continue to get the word out that we are a friendly store that is welcoming to everyone.
How did you choose your store name? It's a Dungeons and Dragons mechanic that we just liked. It sounds good and lends itself to a lot of cool ideas. The original idea (which we intend to implement once we work out the details) was to have a way for customers to “level up” and earn more discounts and perks over time. We like using puns based on the name for our clubs and such – for example, our book club is called Critical Hits. Yes, we're nerds.
What superpower would you most like to have? The Midas Touch, but I'm sure that's unsurprising.
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Back issues are neatly arranged |
New release area |
Popular items including board games |
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Movable fixtures help when needing more room for events |
Comics & manga |
Highlighting new arrivals above the statue case |
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Game room |
Front counter |
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