The shelves are a disgrace!

[Jonny Whizz]

I know that others (notably Lew) have commented in the past about the rather messy and disorganised ways comics are stocked nowadays, but I couldn't find myself agreeing more with this view. I went to a supermarket today to buy the Beano, but I had to look hard to find it in amonst all the other titles. The comics were a real haphazard mess and falling over each other. I might add that the magazines on the other side of the shelving were arranged neatly and you could clearly pick out titles. Having said that, there are some other places where it's worse - at least they were at a reasonable height, rather than six feet above the ground where no kid would ever see, let alone be able to reach them. This is not the worst example I've ever seen, yet it seemed somehow typical, and far from unique.

Rant over.

[chrissmillie]

The Marvel UK comics in the Inverness WHSmith are on the top shelf! Crazy!

[Digifiend]

If one side is neat and the comics side isn't, it was probably kids shoving everything aside to find a title buried at the back or not even in stock. But I've known the video games magazines to be in a similar mess, as well as the cult TV/film magazines. I bet they're neat and tidy at 8am when the shop opens, then all messed up by 10am. Annoying, but better that than on the top shelf where kids won't look.

[STARBOY]

In WH Smiths in Glasgow city centre, the Forge (East end of Glasgow )and in Hamilton town centre, Marvel / Pannini and DC / Titan are all nicely stacked near SFX, Deathray, Fortean times, music mags and style & art mags (Wallpaper, FHM etc) and they get a lot of traffic (the Megazine is here as well) Beano etc are all over the place as Billy Whizz notes. So no complaints from me ( I don't ead or buy the Beano etc)

[Lew Stringer]

I've noticed my local Smiths have cut back on the Panini Marvel comics recently, as has my corner shop (which Smith supply). A bit worrying. Not that I buy many of them but it's good to see a healthy display and the sales of those reprint comics boost Panini's new material.

Couldn't find Beano in Smiths today... then I sorted through the top shelf and there they were. Just three copies, deliberately put behind BeanoMax and completely obscured. I bought two as I'm in it this week, but I seem to be the only person buying it from Smiths as a week later they always have the same number of copies I leave behind. Possibly because a six foot high shelf is beyond the reach of the kids and above the eye-line of their parents.

As for Asda, here's a pic of their display last week. Who on earth is going to bother rummaging through that and peering into the dark recesses of the back shelf? Not me for one. I couldn't even find Beano amongst that mess.



Lew

[Raven]

Is that your local Asda straight after a massive earthquake?

[STARBOY]

Not so good to hear the Marvel and DC books have been cut back where you stay Lew - like yourself I don't buy a lot of them either now (only if a good reprint is included from the 60s - 70s, and / or a cool artist) but I do like to see them on the shelves and they seem healthy enough so far, up here in West Central Scotland - that pic of ASDA is pretty bad but the comics themselves aren't helping with so many bulky gifts taped to the covers - but that's probably a catch 22 no gift, no sales - lots of gifts & the comic gets lost in ASDA.

[Lew Stringer]

Not so good to hear the Marvel and DC books have been cut back where you stay Lew - like yourself I don't buy a lot of them either now (only if a good reprint is included from the 60s - 70s, and / or a cool artist) but I do like to see them on the shelves and they seem healthy enough so far, up here in West Central Scotland - that pic of ASDA is pretty bad but the comics themselves aren't helping with so many bulky gifts taped to the covers - butthat probably a catch 22 not gift no sales , lots of gifts the comic gets lost in ASDA.

True, the cover mounts don't help at all with stacking. However, what makes the mags fall over is the staff often stack them upside down so the weight of the gift makes the comic top heavy. I honestly don't think some of the younger staff understand it's a comic with a cover mount. They think it's a toy with a backing comic, so they display it to show off the toy!

Lew

[Digifiend]

My local Asda always seems to look like Lew's picture too. Do Asda's staff never have time to tidy them up?

[tony ingram]

Not so good to hear the Marvel and DC books have been cut back where you stay Lew - like yourself I don't buy a lot of them either now (only if a good reprint is included from the 60s - 70s, and / or a cool artist) but I do like to see them on the shelves and they seem healthy enough so far, up here in West Central Scotland - that pic of ASDA is pretty bad but the comics themselves aren't helping with so many bulky gifts taped to the covers - butthat probably a catch 22 not gift no sales , lots of gifts the comic gets lost in ASDA.

True, the cover mounts don't help at all with stacking. However, what makes the mags fall over is the staff often stack them upside down so the weight of the gift makes the comic top heavy. I honestly don't think some of the younger staff understand it's a comic with a cover mount. They think it's a toy with a backing comic, so they display it to show off the toy!

Lew

Hardly surprising. I doubt they can read so it's just a piece of paper with pretty colours on it.

[Steve Henderson]

Viz on the bottom shelf and beanos two shelves above? That's the case in a service station I stopped at earlier in the week! I think somekind of uniformity will offer a sollution to this and perhaps increase sales if people know were to go for their fav mag. Impossible though as each store sells different stuff, but if every newsagent could say 'kids papers foot off the ground, next to chit chat magazines' it would be an improvement. Won't happen though. Too much like hard work

[Jonny Whizz]

Sorry, STARBOY, but my name's Jonny Whizz, not Billy Whizz! I'm not as fast as him (wish I was!). That said, if Billy ran alongside these shelves at whizzspeed, blowing the comics into place, then it might sort out the problem (or make it even worse).

Lew is absolutely right. I certainly don't find it inviting to rummage around looking for my comic, and the packaging doesn't help at all. I find The Beano being hidden behind BeanoMax, or sometimes other comics, a problem as well. Is it just me, or does the Beano seem especially hard to find? I think there are too many toys and gifts coming with the comics these days which seem to make the problem worse, making the comics really chunky on the shelves. And as for Viz being below the Beano? That's ridiculous. I'm not sure whether the idea of parents accidentally buying Viz for their young children is funny or sad.

[Lew Stringer]

What's most annoying about these poor displays is that publishers are charged a significant fee for shelf positioning! The amount depends on how prominent the position is, but I doubt that "upside down, back to front, hidden behind another comic, falling on the floor or shoved in sideways" are any of the options.

Still, they're "only comics" innit?

Lew

[Brendan McGuire]

I think to pay extra for a service and not have it carried out by shop staff is nothing short of illegal. It's taking a considerable amount of money under a falsehood. Surely there must be some sort of official watchdog to stamp down on this brand of false trading?

[Jonny Whizz]

I bought this week's Beano from the same supermarket and I'm pleased to say it was much better this time round. I found it a lot easier to find this week's Beano and the shelves were quite neat and tidy. I think the fact that the Beano didn't come with a free gift helped.