Why can't I walk into a grocery store and buy comics anymore? I used to do it as a kid. They sell novels, manga...

Why can't I walk into a grocery store and buy comics anymore? I used to do it as a kid. They sell novels, manga, magazines, and picture books in grocery stores. Why not comic books?

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The industry crashed in the 90's and the direct market limited comic distribution made worse with Diamond's monopoly

That would cut into Diamond's profits, silly. :)

Distribution companies dictating that they could only be sold in comic stores. Except Archie, because none of them wanted Archie.

Most grocery stores barely carry magazines anymore and when they do its the same 10.
Even when stores carried comics regularly they often skipped months or changed what books they'd carry every few months. ed Piskor talks about this in the early 90s in cartoonist Kayfabe.
Wal-mart, at least, carries some DC anthology books.

Is it something to do with Diamond?

no one goes to a grocery store buy comics friend
the newsstand has been dead for decades

And Archie. I see a shitload of Archie.

I have never seen a manga in a grocery store.

Barnes and Nobles isn’t a grocery store user.

I went to Walmart
Saw comics sold with toys
Flash came with Flashpoint #1
Imagine a child in their single digits getting that toy and reading fucking Flashpoint

In Canada I've seen all of that in a grocery store except manga. Not even like Naruto type stuff.

Those are really for "collectors".

Shit was like 5poa

Today was the first day I saw it. I went to Walmart and their book section was now carrying manga.

Walmarts a grocery store?

ed piskor acts like he knows more than he does, my grocery store never skipped issues of marvel or dc books, they just didn't carry every title but those they carried they didn't skip, i was able to get complete newsstand runs for years

They have a wide selection of food, yes.

grocery stores could by contract return magazines and comics. when diamond got a distribution monopoly they refused to service grocery stores because of this.

>no one goes to a grocery store buy comics friend
No shit sherlock they go there to buy groceries then see some comics on the way out and figure
>eh, what the hell
and buy some
I'm not driving 15 minutes out of my way to some shitty strip mall to pick up an overpriced floppy. I might do it if it were already in the store I was buying my bread at.

>Why not comic books?
they do sell comics

Target also sold those DC giants and a few other things

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Please people, read some history. The whole reason the Direct Market was created was because newsstands/grocery stores/etc were tired of selling comics that made them very little profit compared to magazines that had more pages and cost more. Newsstands/markets/mom and pop stores could return their unsold comics so publishers were losing money by the late 70s/early 80s. That's why in the 80s especially you had newsstand editions with UPC codes and direct market with no UPC symbols or tag lines in the boxes instead.

Newsstands and such hated comics. Pushed them off of their shelves and the "answer" was the Direct Market. So that's why you don't see them on racks.

DC tried to put those Giants into Walmart to test waters. Moderate success on those. But not enough to ever make a full return.

Go and read Mile High/Chuck R's history of the development of the direct market. It's biased but it's based in more truth than whatever Ed Piskor is talking about.