Why did comic stands stop being a thing?

Why did comic stands stop being a thing?
Why can't I buy a comic while waiting in line at the super market?

Other urls found in this thread:

milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg95.html
spacetwinks.itch.io/the-problems-with-comics
spacetwinks.itch.io/shut-the-fuck-up-marvel
previewsworld.com/Catalog/FEB168263
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

Where do you live, OP?

>Why did comic stands stop being a thing?

Diamond Distribution.

>Why can't I buy a comic while waiting in line at the super market?

Diamond Distribution.

Read this
milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg95.html
Pretty good column in general.
Two other good essays:
spacetwinks.itch.io/the-problems-with-comics
spacetwinks.itch.io/shut-the-fuck-up-marvel

What do they gain by that?

Are Archie digests in the super market still a thing?

Diamond gains a monopoly. Yet by preventing a mom from giving little Timmy a Superman to read as she grocery shops they limit future customers.

It's short sighted and stupid.

They have them at Walgreens

You're wrong.

Diamond has an exclusive agreement with Marvel, DC, etc. for the direct market. Comic book stores. That's it.

Why aren't comics at corner stores, grocery stores, etc.? Blame the publishers. They can sell and distribute to the "newsstand" if they wish. They don't want to. These are returnable, the direct market is not.

Direct market, retailer pays about half cover price, but can't return anything.

Newsstand, it's all returned and they don't choose exactly what they get or quantities, that's decided by the distributor. Typically two-thirds of magazines are returned. These get pulped. This costs a lot more.

I see them at some grocery stores here and at the Walmart checkout lanes.

Borders had them before they died, I think that was less than 10 years ago.

I'll also add, Diamond does NOT have a monopoly, even in the direct market. There are other distributors. Those distributors can't carry Marvel, DC and the others though. So most shops can't be bothered with other distributors.

My local grocery store still sold DC comics up until about a year or two ago. Now the magazine section is just trash teen gossip zines and automotive shit.

If you can't carry the two biggest names, you don't exist. It's a monopoly.

Yes, part of the reason Archie's stayed around is that they never signed an exclusive contract with Diamond. Them and Bongo Comics, the ones who do the Simpsons comics.

This is incorrect information.

it did make getting comics a whole lot easier when they were available at grocery stores instead of having to make some special trip to a comic shop

Walmart has normal trades too

Who the fuck even reads comics anymore?

I had a comic shop almost a stones throw from my house growing up. Made life amazingly simple.

The half hour drive (hour back and forth) I take every wednesday is a real kick in the balls. I imagine how much more difficult it is for a kid in my town, or any of my five towns, to buy a floppy.

Maybe a newbury comics but they have like exclusively #1s from like a year ago lol

Walmart has it's newsstand section with the magazines and stuff. Also books, those are probably a different distributor than the magazines. Trades are available through a lot of distributors, not just Diamond. It's not like Amazon buys their trades through Diamond.

Because most sane people don't give a shit about 20 pages and 15 minutes of entertainment for 3.99, having to wait another month to do it again, and having to wait 5-8 months for one single story to wrap up and possibly fall flat.
So stores don't carry it. Because they know nobody will buy it.

Trades are simply a better deal, especially Image vol 1s and some DC ones

Couldn't even put half of what DC publishes on one of those.

Fuck where do I buy pic related?

That's a super tiny spinner with tiny little comics.

I know I'd it for my desk at work, where do I buy it?

previewsworld.com/Catalog/FEB168263

Looks like it hasn't come out yet. Must be delayed, if it has a FEB16 code with Diamond it should have come out in May 2016. You could ask at your LCS if they can order it.

Since it's $3, I'm wondering if they'd have to order a bundle of them, that may cause your LCS not to want to order it. I can't check the Diamond retailer site from home.

bit off-topic but I was looking into getting a spinner rack for my house to put some of my favorites on just the other day.

Fucking things are expensive.

Drugstores in Canada sometimes still have Archie and Dark Horse stuff.

Jeez I dream of getting custom racks with sliding draws to hold longboxes. Dream bigger friend.

I mean it's not a dream by any means. I'll probably sink the money into it. Just noting that 200 dollars for a metal wire rack is excessive.

Also, dream bigger, build the things one weekend. You can't make puzzles? Though space may be the issue for that.

for some people who aren't poorfags its just a casual hobby, I've got a pull list and i go down to the shop 1 or 2 times a month.

If you've a rabid need to read things first with everyone else instead of just enjoying the story thats more on you than the system..

Yes, I too want young children seeing Power Girl's tits exposed right in their faces at the checkout.

That MileHigh one was quite the fucking read... but really goddamn interesting. thanks for the links

>implying she'll ever get another ongoing

Those exist. The stop and shop I worked at while in college had those. Granted the comics were 6+ months out of date.

Still it was the only option for comics in town if you didn't want to drive 20 minutes to the comic book store 2 towns over

My local book store had comics every month and so does my local supermarket but it is only Archie comics. Is this because of the Diamond deal?

I've been wanting in depth articles about this for a while. Thanks user.

At this point it's not really about Diamond and just about what they want to invest shelf space in it.

Both DC & Marvel have started doing $5 blind bags of some of their more recent stuff ($5 gets you one guaranteed issue along with two random mystery ones). Do kind of want some Marvel, but I ain't touching the newer stuff unless they bundle like IDK Moonknight, Ultimates, or U.S.Avengers

Found them by chance at Walmart yesterday

That's been a thing for decades.