Rick Newman of Pet Shop Comics & Collectibles in Louisville, Kentucky read Steve Bennett's latest column regarding Hastings locations carrying comics (see "Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--Uh-Oh, Competition") and had this to say:

Here at Pet Shop Comics we have no fear of competition.  In our store life of almost 12 years here in the Louisville, Kentucky area, we’ve competed fairly and honestly against a dozen or so other good, established shops.

We started out as a 900 square foot comics only store and then began adding games as our customer base would support them.  Within four years, we needed to expand to our next location; three doors up in the same shopping strip, to a 1,900 square foot facility.  We added even more comics and games, as well as gaming tables, until we had to expand once again, this time into a 9,000 square foot expanse in a shopping center 3/4 of a mile down the road.  We are now the largest comics and games store in the region.  We host tournaments that attract people from all around the country.  We sell thousands of comics, and boast a back issue inventory of around 130,000 comics.

Again, we worked real hard and competed fairly; under the same rules as everybody else.  I wonder whether that’s going to be the case with a national comic book chain, spending more dollars than we spend.  Will they have preference over the single brick and mortar shops?  What kind of influence will those dollars have on Diamond Comic Distributors?

We’ve already seen how (cough! cough!) “specialty” stores like Toys ‘R’ Us get their toys and products SEVERAL MONTHS before we do, and by the time we get our stuff, our customers already have it.  Time will tell, but the squeeze is obviously on the smaller brick and mortar stores.
 
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