As we begin to grasp the realities of the economic impact of COVID-19, comics retailers are being particularly hard hit, especially in areas where quarentines and strict social distancing policies have been announced.
San Francisco’s Comix Experinece (owned by Beat columnist Brian Hibbs) is in one such place. San Francisco has announced a “shelter in place” policy which requires people to stay home and all non-essential business to close.
It’s the strictest policy yet in the US, and it’s necessary but to say it will have a devastating impact on small businesses is a vast understatement.
Like many comics shops, Hibbs is announcing a mail order poliucy with free shipping. You can read the entire post below, but we urge fans to continue to support their local comic shops and other small businesses as best they can.
The Beat will have continuous coverage of how comics shops are adapting to the new reality.
March 17, 2020
Dear Amazing Comix Experience customer!
The City of San Francisco has just announced a “shelter in place” order through April 7th, so accordingly, we will be closing the doors to walkup business.
However, the unfortunate reality of being a small business (especially in an expensive place for retail like San Francisco!) is that we’re largely a business that is dependent on cash flow, and so fully shutting down for three weeks or more will be a giant financial hit. Comix Experience is committed to ensuring its excellent staff is ultimately paid their normal wages during this crisis.
While we’ve always offered shipping, for at least until April 7th, we’re going to make it free for all orders over $20. We don’t have a website with all of our inventory online, but we do have a modest online store built around our Graphic Novel Clubs which you can find here:
https://squareup.com/store/comix-experience/
If you call Divisadero St. at 415-863-9258 or Ocean Ave at 415-239-2669 we’d be happy to take a phone order. Our expectation is that we’ll have extremely limited hours for taking orders (expect Noon to 5 pm in a best case scenario through most of this, and it may not be that good) so you should also feel free to email [email protected] or [email protected] to arrange for you to be taken care of.
For this immediate Wednesday 4/18, both stores will be taking phone calls from 10 am, but the emails and a small bit of patience will probably be your best bet in this extraordinary situation.
We are also happy to offer curbside pickup. Call or email us, and we be happy to arrange a convenient time for curbside pickup.
For a list of what is being released this week, please look at
https://www.previewsworld.com/NewReleases
If you’d like to support Comix Experience, a great way is to join our Graphic Novel Month Clubs: we curate an excellent graphic novel by staff vote each month, and then livestream a meeting and Q&A with the creator about their career and how art works. You can find out more information about the club by visiting www.graphicnovelclub.com/start.
We also have kids club that operates much the same way, that you can find at www.graphicnovelclub.com/kids
We can also sell you a gift certificate in any amount you like!
We appreciate your patronage, and your support of small business, and we very much look forward to serving you in whatever limited capacity we are able.
