Leaving Outland

I made a pretty monumental decision today.  Well, it's monumental in my opinion.  Today I decided to give up on my local comic book store.

Whoa.  Wait.  I know what you're thinking.  No, I've not given up on comics.  I still plan to collect them as I always have, just from somewhere else.  It's a hard decision.  One that's taken me over a year, and the presentation of another option, to finally move ahead with.

Let me give you some back story.  I've been frequenting Outland comics since I was in junior high. Back then they were Captain Comics.  I'd make a trip there every month and pick up my X-men comics. The time came when I finally had a job and I opened my box.  They'd set aside the comics on my list when they came in and I'd pick them up at my leisure every month.  I never had an issue. (No pun intended)

That was until they got new owners which resulted in the regular comic guy, Clifton, leaving.

Now the new guy James was a nice guy.  We'd chat, not like Clifton and I, but we had short talks about comics.  It just never felt the same though.  The problem was when I'd go and pick up my comics, every so often, I'd read them and get confused.  I wouldn't understand what was going on in the issue.  I thought as I read it that I was suffering from Alzheimer's or something.  It wasn't until I was putting away my comics that I realized what it was.  I was missing the previous issue.  I wasn't remembering it because I'd never read it.

Now this was only an occasional occurrence at this point, more often than when Clifton ran the store mind you, but nothing I couldn't look past to keep giving my business to the local comic shop.  To be quite honest it was really my only option.

Recently it's become more frequent.  It seems that every month I've dealt with these cases of dread that I've got an old persons disease.  Then I realize that I've missed an issue and I become irate.

Today was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I'd realized for the second time this month that I was missing an issue.  I went into the store to see if they had it and to slip in there that he'd missed another issue AGAIN.  The reaction I got was terrible.  James made me feel like such an inconvenience.  That he was exasperated that he had to bother ordering an issue I missed that was really his fault.  There was no "sorry" or "I'm not sure what happened?"  It was a curt "I'll order it." and a curt "There.  It's ordered."

Working in customer service I've come to be nicer to the people in the service industry.  On the flip-side I can't tolerate rudeness from people I purchase things from.  It's a pet peeve when someone that is getting my hard earned money is rude to me, so I left in a foul mood.

My solution came later this evening.  I was in Hastings renting movies.  We happened to land in the line of a friend, Sarah, who is also a huge comic fan.  I told her I wished that Hastings, who's gotten into the comics quite a bit, did boxes.  She said that they did and set me up, right then and there!

It's bitter sweet.  I've wished for a solution to this problem.  I wanted to keep my business local, but was tired of missing issues and the lack of empathy from Outland.  I worry about not getting the same friendly face every month from Hastings, but I also want to get what I pay for.  That store, whether Captain or Outland, has received a lot of my business for a long time and I hate the thought of leaving.  I just don't feel appreciated anymore.