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Re: Issue 1

Posted: 28 Jan 2012, 18:10
by Peter Gray
Got issue 4 in Godalming Waitrose there was only one on the shelf near the newspaper so was lucky to grab it..
still to read it..

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 28 Jan 2012, 21:17
by felneymike
Not quite sure what's happened to the copy of issue 1 I rang up to order special, but the central Cambridge "Little Waitrose" had 1, 2 and 3 today, so I'm reading through the first four in one lump now. Also got Strip Magazine number 3!

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 28 Jan 2012, 22:30
by Anorak783
Apologies if this has already been mentioned (this thread is 10 pages long, so it would take a while to read it all!), but I popped in to Travelling Man (Manchester) today and they said they wanted to stock it but there were problems getting hold of copies!

If that's the same at every comics shop then I feel the publishers have missed a trick - or maybe they feel that the comic is simply not aimed at yer traditional "comics fan"?

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 12:15
by felneymike
It's not aimed at "yer traditional comics fan", and a good thing too! You don't see the Beano in dedicated comic shops either, do you?

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 15:00
by Digifiend
No, the dedicated comic book shops seem to think that comics = superheroes. Beano, Dandy, and Phoenix don't fit that mould, being anthology comics which don't focus on superheroes, rather than titles featuring one long superhero story.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 16:06
by steelclaw
Raven wrote:
swirlythingy wrote:Worcester Park, perhaps fearful of the mob which descended upon them last week after I revealed the secret in their stockbook, are not in posession of issue 4.
"We're not stocking that again. People just keep buying it!"
Lol :D That just about sums it up.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 18:06
by Matt_Baxter
It also seems quite odd that the shop found it difficult to get copies. It's not very difficult!

Gosh in London, OK in Leeds and a growing list of indie bookshops (not specialist comic shops) all sell The Phoenix. I wonder if the sales assistant didn't really know why it wasn't stocked.

M

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 18:38
by Anorak783
The lady in the shop seemed pretty knowledgeable about it and Travelling Man do have a children's section so I think they do want to stock it. If we ("yer typical comics fans") want to get the UK comics industry moving again then we should at least check it out before we decide we don't like it.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 19:26
by Matt_Baxter
Well, I would whole-heartedly agree that you should check it out. But then I'm biased when I say it's the best British comic currently available for 7-11 year olds...because I'm a contributor!

I'm slightly baffled that TM can't get the stock and I'll chat to the editorial team on Monday. There shouldn't be any barriers to retailers getting the stock, unless they have restrictive sale-or-return practices (the sort of practice that rules out WHSmith for most small indie comics/magazines with limited budgets).

I'm not familiar with TM, but I'll visit next time I'm up north visiting my folks. Its very good by all accounts. My local comic shop is Gosh, which has an incredible kids section, including all issues to date of The Phoenix.

M

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 20:00
by WizzKid97
We have it available down here in the South - I can get it every week! :)

I agree with Matt despite not being a contributor - it really is the best comic I have ever read. Sorry Beano and Dandy - The Phoenix has come to town...

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 20:27
by PaulTwist
Travelling Man in Manchester stocks all the DFC collected editions so The Phoenix would fit right in. Hope to see it there!

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 29 Jan 2012, 22:18
by steelclaw
WizzKid97 wrote:We have it available down here in the South - I can get it every week! :)

I agree with Matt despite not being a contributor - it really is the best comic I have ever read. Sorry Beano and Dandy - The Phoenix has come to town...
Really where?

I tried another 5 Waitrose stores to get issue 4 with no luck in central London.

I got issue 4 from Gosh in Soho they still had copies of Issue 2 & 3.
Anyway enough of moaning after reading 1-3 it's a great comic and long may it continue.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 30 Jan 2012, 19:46
by big bad bri
Finally picked up iss 1-4 from gosh, o hope all the running around various waitrose without luck, has been worth it. Glad I have it on standing order now as iss 1 sd out again.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 31 Jan 2012, 00:04
by swirlythingy
I phoned Waitrose's customer service desk over the weekend and demanded to know why the comic was apparently not in a single one of Waitrose's many branches in Greater London. They wriggled and squirmed and buck-passed and went all "that's not in my department" on me, and then they said they'd have someone from the magazine department call back on Monday. Naturally, I was out, as those of us not fortunate enough to be retired tend to be in the middle of a Monday, though why this simple fact has eluded such large swathes of the commercial sector for so many years I have no idea.

So all I have to show for it is a paraphrasing of the call, courtesy of my parents, which runs roughly thus: "The Phoenix is available from every Waitrose store, but if there are any stores which it is unavailable from (incidentally invalidating the previous statement, but we'll ignore that), you can ask them to place a regular order. I appear to be conveniently unaware of your protracted and continually frustrated attempts to get Worcester Park to do just that, and I'll pretend that their response wasn't that they were equally powerless to do any such thing due to matters of magazine distribution being beyond their control, a policy of which I could not possibly be unaware given my current workplace. In conclusion, I am either terminally stupid or a massive t***."

Anyway, this evening I withdrew my head from the brick wall one last time and went to Gosh!, where issue 4 was sitting in full view on the magazine shelf, in a way it conspicuously wasn't in Waitrose.

Dear Phoenix: Please choose your friends more carefully next time. And also please try and get it in more non-Waitrose shops, because now there's absolutely no way they are going to end up being the ones suing you for breach of contract.

Re: Issue 1

Posted: 31 Jan 2012, 00:54
by NP
To be retired, Martin, you have to have had a job.
And is that word you use really suitable for this site? I must admit I am baffled that the admin deletes perfectly reasonable posts and yet allows things like this.