Twin Cities Comic Stores Adapt to Withstand the Pandemic
Over a month since Minnesota’s stay-at-home order went into effect, all of us are adapting to “social distancing” in different ways. Some of us are bingeing Netflix, others are joining in on breaking Steam daily records, and a lot of us are using Zoom to connect with our friends and family during this difficult time. The pandemic has, unfortunately, been a somewhat apocalyptic time for our local businesses. Many are just hanging it up, including some of this geek’s favorite places, such as Muddy Waters, the Bachelor Farmer, and numerous others.
Some states are starting to open up, although it appears to be somewhat premature. With the ongoing health concerns, consumers still are likely hesitant to return to their normal routines, so even when the stay-at-home order lifts, it won’t immediately be business as usual for local establishments.
As a result, many consumers have shifted their needs to digital commerce, prompting huge demand surges for basics on sites like Amazon, which has delayed delivery of nonessential goods up to a month, and Instacart, which set about trying to hire 300,000 people to keep up with demand. With this massive shift to e-commerce, some of our local comic-book businesses have set up rapid online shops to still maintain some semblance of revenue during this difficult time—even as comics distribution giant Diamond halted shipping to all stores for the entire month of April. Like many of their bookstore bretheren, our local comic shops have been trying to sustain their business through online orders. Although not everyone will be able to support local shops at this moment with the massive uncertainty in future employment, comics and board games are both excellent uses for all this additional time we’re spending at home.
A cup of coffee and a good comic book—a great way to spend some time during social distancing. Mahdiar Mahmoodi/Unsplash
So where can you take care of your to-be-read list?
Heroic Goods and Games is operating a contactless delivery service as well as offering shipping through its online store. The shop has also been launching rapid virtual sales in which you are able to purchase comic books, video games, and other nerd essentials through commenting on photos shared on Heroic Goods’ Facebook page. Nostalgia Zone is still taking orders through its online portal as well but has noted that orders will be taking a bit longer to send out. You can also shop limited online assortments from DreamHaven, Level Up Games, World of Games, and Source Comics and Games. Meanwhile, Dreamers Vault, Hot Comics and Collectibles, Comic Book College, and Issues Needed Comics all started fulfilling curbside pickup orders at the beginning of May. And Mind’s Eye Comics and Granite City Comics and Games are maintaining a limited shipping business, so you can email them to get some of your favorite comics (and Magic: The Gathering cards).
Unfortunately this is a very trying time for our small businesses. If you can, do your best to shop local for your comics during this period of physical distancing. We can all continue to support one another and help our favorite stores get through this.
Follow @TwinCitiesGeeks on Twitter or Like Twin Cities Geek on Facebook for more great stuff from Minnesota geeks in your feed!
![[shows a large tower with other smaller skyscrapers next to it.]](https://i0.wp.com/twincitiesgeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Planetarium-3.jpg?resize=200%2C125&ssl=1)
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Level up games doesn’t have “limited assortments”. Their full store inventory is on their website and they’re doing curbside pickup, delivery, and shipping. Did you reach out directly to any of these stores at all?
Hi Jessica,
It’s possible that by the time the article was written, published, and revised, that there have been changes to the models that our local shops are employing. The situation is super dynamic and changing every day, so I would expect that there might be full changes after the article was posted and with the recent easing of restrictions that many of our local shops might have a lot more availability of options. I did reach out to some local shops, but obviously not everyone mentioned in the article. I did supplement by using social media posts and their websites to review how they were adapting to the current environment. Apologize if some of the details shifted as the article was posted.