Sounds great, right? Actors are hired, banners are printed, press releases are released, and a proclamation has been issued by the mayor, declaring September 15th "Superman Day" in the city of Cheviot.
So this should have been a very serendipitous ten days the parade on Thursday promoting Superman’s appearance the following Wednesday, culminating in the city’s first comic convention in years the following Saturday. We hired a Superman actor to advertise the Man of Steel’s upcoming appearance in Cincinnati in Superman #703.
The folks at the Expo had hired a local man with a 1966 Batmobile to drive in the parade to advertise the upcoming comic convention. In conjunction with the upcoming Cincinnati Comic Expo, we participated in this year’s parade. I swear, I thought we were done with this topic. The parade leads me to the biggest challenge we faced this week. But, it’s a 151-year-old parade, I’m not gonna get ‘em to change anytime soon. I’m all for civic pride and a sense of community, except when it restricts my ability to do business. So, comics are a day late, and Cheviot celebrates by blocking access to my store. It’s a loooong parade, taking about 2-1/2 hours to complete once it starts, which means the street is closed on new comics day for about half the day, including my after-work rush! It’s a huge revenue stream for the city, and historically, the city has never put the local merchant’s needs ahead of its own. The parade pre-dates the Civil War, and marches right down Harrison Avenue, the main thoroughfare. A "Twilight Zone" kinda place, forever thinking (or wishing) it was 1950. Never annexed by the city of Cincinnati, Cheviot is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, that just happens to be a city unto itself. My store is located in Cincinnati, specifically a one-square-mile town within the city called Cheviot. The single biggest reason I hate Labor Day week is the Harvest Home Parade. I would LOVE for the publishers to wake up and adjust their shipping plans accordingly. Somehow, at least a portion of that income never finds its way back. We make the best of it with a Labor Day sale, but the disruption in delivery doesn’t guarantee people will (or can) disrupt their weekly routines to match. Thankfully, those delays are coming to an end soon with day-early delivery. It’s a holiday week, which means Thursday arrival of new comics. And we give bonus loyalty card points on customers' birthdays, so we enjoy celebrating them.
You’re not twelve." But hey, I make a living selling comic books, growing up is pretty far down on my list of things to do. You’re all thinking "Geez, grow up already. No one is willing to believe I’m 29 anymore, and my best friend forgot (again). I suffered through another birthday this week. If you’re an aspiring comic book retailer, here’s some of the adversity you may face. So I guess this week’s column is kinda like that. Whenever I would go on a job interview (I think the last one was in 1980-something) I would always ask what a typical day was like in that position.
I didn’t come here this week to whine, but it’s been that kind of a week. This week, Kendall recounts some recent retailing challenges. Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk is a weekly column by Kendall Swafford of Up Up Away! in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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