Times and rules for Walk-in reopen!

Hello you amazing Comix Experience customer!

Starting this week, the City of San Francisco is allowing some retail stores to open again to walk-in business, with several restrictions.

We are going to take it slowly, for now, and proceed with caution, and only partially reopen for the moment as we feel out both the safety as well as the economics of returning to regular business.

From 6/15 to 6/30 our schedule will be:

DIVISADERO

Mon, Tue: CURBSIDE PICKUP ONLY

Wed: 11-6 (except 6/17 where we need to shut at 5, sorry)

Thur – Sun: 12-5

OCEAN

Sun-Tue: CURBSIDE PICKUP ONLY

Wed: 11-6

Thur-Sat: 12-5

We are hoping/expecting that our hours will expand afterwards, but we’re taking this two weeks at a time to see how things will work.

At BOTH stores:

• YOU MUST BE MASKED (no exceptions)

• You must sanitize your hands upon entry (no exceptions)

• We will remain touchless payment only, so we will not touch cash. You can give us cash in an envelope, but we are not giving any change at this time.

• We will have physical limits on the number of people allowed in the store at one time, and we will limit your browsing time to 15 minutes. Divisadero will limit to five people at a time, while Ocean is going to limit to two people.

• If you are sick, PLEASE STAY HOME, even if it is minor. We will ask folks coughing or sneezing to leave.

• You must endeavor to stay six feet away from other customers.

We know this is a lot; it’s a lot for us, too. We ask you for your patience as everyone adjusts to the new pandemic-driven realities of stores. We are doing this for your safety as well as ours and our extended families.

We will still be offering pre-purchasing books and comics for curbside pickup through our website. You can find these links on www.comixexperience.com in the pull down menu for “Locations”, but for a direct link, Ocean’s webstore is https://comix-outpost.myshopify.com/ while Divisadero’s webstore is https://comix-experience.myshopify.com/ Those both have each stores individual non-back issue inventory.

If these hours don’t fit your life, we’re going to offer an extremely limited number of pre-scheduled private shopping times outside of these hours. Please contact either divisadero@comixexperience.com or ocean@comixexperience.com to enquire about availability. And give us at least 72 hours to schedule.

Again, we apologize for these rules and restrictions; everything is a Work in Progress right now!

# # # # #

In other news, many of you have heard that DC Comics has withdrawn itself from the normal comics distribution process, and instead is only selling to us via two of our largest mail order competitors. With history as a guide, we strongly suspect that these businesses are going to have a difficult time scaling up to handle Wholesale distribution (it’s much harder than it seems), and it will absolutely be adding to our costs and time to handle DC periodical comics at a time that no retailer anywhere has any time, nor profit, to spend – but we’re committed to filling all customer pre-orders that are placed on time. We have no idea how available reorders are going to be for DC (we suspect it will be extremely spotty), so if you want to be 100% sure that you are getting 100% of the DC single issue periodical comics that you want, do yourself a favor and set up a subscription order. You can inquire about this in person, or through the location-specific emails above.

This should have zero impact on how we carry graphic novels from DC, just the individual periodical comics.

In general, from all publishers, we will be severely reducing the risk we take on periodicals going forward, so setting up subscriptions is going to be the smartest thing to do in any case. You’ll notice we will be especially thin on new periodicals at first because we were still closed to walk-in by the City when we ordered the next week or two of comics, and we were further really unsure how many of you are going to come out and shop. Periodical comics are usually non-returnable to comic book retailers, so we bear 100% of the risk if they don’t sell, so you will please understand our caution in these early days until we understand how the new world is actually going to operate (as opposed to our theory crafting)

Things are going to continue to be weird for a little while, but we strongly think that comics is a community and that you’re all members of our comics family. Families look out after one another, and every change and policy we implement right now is designed to protect both you as well as our astonishingly awesome staff. We truly appreciate your patience.

If you’d like to support the stores more broadly, we’d like to continue to recommend any of our three Graphic Novel of the Month clubs – www.graphicnovelclub.com/start -- because the income from these go directly to paying staff wages (and have kept everyone at full hours and pay throughout the shut-down)

If we don’t say it enough: thank you for your business. It truly means the world to us and while it might be some time yet until we’re able to share a smile with you again, there’s nothing we love better than sharing our love and passion for comics with YOU.

Yours, in the love of comics

Brian Hibbs, Head Cheese, Comix Experience

On behalf of:

Zoe Hu, Divisadero Manager

Jeremy Talamantes, Ocean Manager

Emma Munger, Art Director

Nathan Williams, Back Issue Manager

Tony Guzman, All Around Swell Guy

Open again for curbside starting Monday 5/18!

UPDATE for 5/18/2020

Dear amazing Comix Experience customer!

As you may have heard, the City of San Francisco is slowly starting to let a few select kinds of business to slowly open for curbside service starting Monday May 18, and Comix Experience is one of them!  Further, New Comics will go on sale beginning Wednesday 5/20, yay!  If you find it helpful to read The City’s exact order, please find it here: https://www.sfdph.org/dph/alerts/files/Summary-of-Operating-Conditions-for-Curbside-Retail-051420.pdf

NEW PERIODICAL COMICS START AGAIN ON WED 5/20!

Because we’re entirely unsure just how many people still want new periodical comics in a curbside-world, our current orders are not ordering the “rack copies” that we would normally sell to browsers, for the overwhelming majority of new periodicals released.  We can’t HAVE browsers, so we have to order defensively once we see how many customers there are in “the new normal”.  If you want to be reading new periodical comics as they are released, for virtually every title this is going to require you to set up a new subscription (or “sub”) order where we pull and charge you for the book every month.  If you do not make this arrangement, we’re going to have to rely on reorders to get comics, so please sign up to ensure we can fill the comics YOU want, right when they come out!

If you shop at the Mothership on Divisadero St., the address to write to set up a new sub is divisadero@comixexperience.com, while if you shop at Outpost on Ocean Ave, you want to mail ocean@comixexperience.com.  Please include a phone number we can reach you at for payment information, a list of the series you want to buy on an ongoing basis, and whether you want to pick up or have your comics mailed to you, and whether that is weekly or monthly.  We really want to make sure you get the comics you want!

If you have an existing subscription, you’re pretty much covered: we ordered for you based on pre-shutdown wants.  We’ve already set up more instructions with many of you, but feel free to reach out if you’re unsure of your status.  If you are set up to pay weekly, we will charge books on Tuesday nights, and have your comics ready for you on Wednesday morning to pick up (or ship).  If you are paying monthly, then we’ll make individual arrangements for you of the where and whens.

We can also take advance orders for new graphic novels, but we are ordering at least small amounts for “the rack” for books we are anticipating adding to our long-term collection – we’re just not taking more risks than we have to in terms of new inventory, so speak up if you want to be guaranteed.

HOW TO GET YOUR COMICS!

At both stores, our short-term plan is to open for Curbside Noon to Five, Every day of the Week.  This will likely change quickly to better reflect events on the ground, so you might want to call ahead, just to be sure, for a bit.

Being open to Curbside-only means that we are open for pickups only, no browsing, and all pickups have to be arranged before hand, in a contactless manner – the best possible way is to use our webstores;  We have one set up for each location, with individualized inventory.  If you don’t see the title you want, we invite you to contact us, because we will work to take care of you, even if it is happening as catch-up (these are all linked at our general website: www.comixexperience.com):

Comix Experience

305 Divisadero St., SF, 94117

divisadero@comixexperience.com

415-863-9258

Webstore: https://comix-experience.myshopify.com/

Comix Experience Outpost

2381 Ocean Ave., SF, 94127

ocean@comixexperience.com

415-239-2669

Webstore: https://comix-outpost.myshopify.com/

When you come to pickup your comics, YOU MUST BE MASKED.  Heroes wear masks, be a hero!  There are no exceptions.  Capes, however, are optional.

We will have a table in front of the doorway of each store, blocking entry to the inside.  Come and tell us who you are, and we’ll put your comics on the table so no one comes in direct contact.  If there is more than one person arriving at the same time, please observe the six foot rule for social distancing!

We are genuinely sorry that we are not going to be able to hold conversations with you!  It’s our favorite part of selling comics, but it’s important that we slowly the spread of COVID-19 by modeling good social distancing.  Things will return to normal before too long, don’t worry!

STAYING IN CONTACT AND KEEPING US STRONG

If you’re not already on our email list to find out critical updates and new events, you can signup for the Divisadero St. store’s mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/bh3bTT.   The Ocean avenue store’s list can be found here: http://eepurl.com/bh3bTX

All small businesses are on the verge of failure right now because of this crisis, and we are not so proud as hide that things are rough for us too.  Do you want to support the long-term health of Comix Experience, and local community-driven comic book stores?  We’d love it if you joined one (or more!) of our three graphic novel clubs!

Our main Graphic Novel Club is brand-new monthly selections, where we keep you current on the best new book released every month, signed bookplates, creators livestreamed Q&As, and the proverbial “more”!  Find out more at www.graphicnovelclub.com/start

We also have an AWESOME club for Middle Reader kids.  Buttons and Magnets, and a steady stream of great monthly newly release books by dynamic creators, a livestreamed show, and just a lot of fun!  The direct URL: www.graphicnovelclub.com/kids

And we’d just announced a new Comics Masterpieces Club bringing you all of the great books of many decades of comics history!  We’re launching with the great Garth Ennis and PREACHER, and already have appearances booked by other comic book legends like Brian Michael Bendis and Neil Gaiman, and many more!  Find this at www.graphicnovelclub.com/classic

The more members we have, the safer we are for the long term, so please consider joining today, and helping us ensure we can bring you comics for many more years to come!

We really miss you, and we hope this return to Curbside means we’ll be able to serve you the way we’d like to.

We are your friends for comics, and we hope to see you very soon!

Brian Hibbs

Head Cheese, Comix Experience

On behalf of:

Zoe Hu, Divisadero st Manager

Jeremy Talamantes, Ocean Ave Manager

Emma Munger, Art Director

Nathan Williams, Back Issue Director

Tony Guzman, All Around Swell Guy

and James Reid, as The Beaver

New Comics and COVID update

Update for 4/29/2020

Dear AMAZING Comix Experience customer,

The weeks have dragged along without any real new news on the comics front, but Diamond Comics has finally announced that they believe that distribution of new comics will resume again soon, possibly as soon as May 20th (this is still not, however, a 100% firm date as I write this)

However, as most of you are aware, the six-county San Francisco Bay Area has announced that “Shelter in Place” will continue throughout at least the entire month of May with “non-essential” businesses like Comix Experience remaining closed to walk-in business.

As you may imagine, this makes planning for what to order of newly-released periodicals (most of which genuinely had a shelf life in The Before Times that was measured in days, not weeks) a pretty daunting task when we’re pretty certain that we are not allowed to be opened!

This means that it would not be responsible for us to order “rack copies” of these comics at this time.  ALL PREORDERS FROM OUR “SUBSCRIPTION” CUSTOMERS WILL BE ORDERED AS USUAL.

If you are NOT a box-holder at either of our locations, and you are interested in obtaining the new periodicals that will be released while we are still mandated to be closed, then you should contact us immediately at either divisadero@comixexperience.com or ocean@comixexperience.com to set up a subscription of your own!  We will need to get your payment and shipping information (we can also hold your comics for you to be picked up after this is over), as well as a list of books you want to receive.  PLEASE DO THIS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE: our deadline for the 5/20 comics will be Monday May 4th.

EVERY week, Diamond provides a list of books that are on what we call “Final Order Cutoff” – you can find that list here: https://www.previewsworld.com/FinalOrdersDue.  This list is NOT FINALIZED until FRIDAY AT NOON – as I write this for example, there are zero Marvel comics listed yet for 5/20, despite our understanding they will be offering a full selection!  In order to have the time to process your order, we need to have your requests in hand by MONDAY AT NOON.  This is true every week!  We very much recognize that this is a sub-optimal situation for many of you, but this is the reality that each and every new periodical buyer in the San Francisco Bay Area (and probably the entire West Coast) is going to have to adjust to for at least a few weeks of releases.

Let us continue to remind you that we are still doing mail order using our 7000+ piece inventory that’s locked in the store.  You can find our temporary work-in-progress webstore at https://comix-experience.myshopify.com/

We thank you for your patience during this challenging time.  We’ll be here for you on the other side!

-B

Brian Hibbs, Head Cheese, Comix Experience

Important Covid-19 FAQ

Our most up to the minute info will be here: https://www.comixexperience.com/covid19-faq but as of 3/17 at 9 am:

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 divisadero@comixexperience.com or ocean@comixexperience.com 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.