Hey, Folks!
This week’s New Release rack certainly fills me with hope for the future. Finally, after months of deprivation, I have enough new comics to sell to truly be worthy of the title “New Comics Day”. Ever since the shutdown lifted back in May I have been fervently wishing for the day to finally arrive when I could look at my invoice and see a list of new comics to rival a pre-apocalypse shipment. Yes, next week’s offerings pull back a bit, but it is the last week of a five week month so it was going to be a little short in any case. Still, after the last several weeks, this is a nice change.
Some of you may have noticed a slightly irate post that I put up on the Facebook page yesterday concerning Monarch Comics and face masks. Steve received a phone call yesterday afternoon from the State Health Department regarding a complaint made to them about customers not wearing face masks in the store. Steve took the call so I wasn’t privy to the entire conversation, but we were accused of not requiring face masks within the store. Any of you who have visited the store since we reopened on May 12th know that this is horse manure. Not only have Steve and I both wore our masks continuously as long as there are customer in the store, but the majority of our patrons have also worn masks out of respect for store policy and/or public health. I’m pleased to report that since the City of Toledo mandated face masks for Toledo businesses that number has risen to 99%. In fact, in the last two weeks I do believe there have been exactly TWO customers without face masks…one who was catered to before the store was opened for business and the other one forgot his in his car and was in and out in ten minutes. I want to thank everyone for taking the time and energy to wear their face masks in the store despite your personal philosophy regarding face masks and Covid-19. It is truly appreciated. I have absolutely no desire to be the “Face Mask Police” or end up in one of those embarrassing YouTube videos. I hope whoever had the “courage” to erroneously report us, anonymously no less, have enjoyed the results of their little lie and will eventually have all of this boomerang back on them at the worst possible moment. In any case, please wear your mask when you come in the store and if you don’t have one then just ask at the counter and we will give one to you to wear for your visit. Thanks again to the majority of our customers who don’t have to be told this and understand that we have no choice in the matter.
Free Comic Summer is now officially in full swing and I wanted to mention that we have a dedicated rack for all of the free comics in play now. Monarch Comics has decided to put the new FCBD titles on the new release rack as well as a small comic rack situated by the register. If you and your family would like to swing by for some free comics this FCBD rack is placed in an isolated spot (well, as isolated as anything gets in this store space) so that you can social y distance while picking up a few titles. We are not placing any restrictions on how many titles you can get, but we do hope you won’t take more than one of each so as to leave some for the next patron. Next week’s new FCBD titles include FCBD 2020 Archie Blue Ribbon Presents, FCBD 2020 Batman Overdrive Once Upon A Crime, FCBD 2020 Stranger Things & Minecraft, and FCBD 2020 The Boys #1! As with all things FCBD, get them while supplies last!
I wanted to warn everyone that due to Covid-19 we are experiencing a slow down in our reorder shipments from Diamond. I do believe I mentioned last week about Diamond’s staffing problems in the age of Covid which has caused reorder shipments to be delayed anywhere from 1-4 days. I’ve also started to notice that the comic supplies chain has started to breakdown a bit as well with supplies like bags, boards, and boxes getting delayed while Diamond restocks. I have no idea how long this problem will persist, but understand we are doing our best to keep your comic book supplies in stock and at the lower prices you are used to paying. I mention this now in particular because we are running low on white half size boxes and my latest order just went to backorder. I promise that as soon as they are available we will endeavor to keep things more fully in stock.
Initial orders are due in at Diamond today so I will be hard at work getting them done this afternoon. If you have any special order items now is the time to let me know so that I can guarantee you receive them. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!
Eddie