Did you buy your comics in grocery stores?

[samurainoir]

Interesting discussion. When I was really young, all my earliest comics came from the grocery store or drug store. Archie and Disney Adventures are still there as digest size. One wonders if Marvel and DC could still be in grocery stores as well if they didn't abandon digests via the grocery stores in favour of the direct market.

http://twitter.com/GeoffJohns0/status/20128049433419776

Geoff Johns: Grocery stores could be a gateway to comic shops. It was for me. Anything to get people converted and come to the store!!

Igle: It was for me too, that’s where I bought my first Alien Legion , my first Superman and Captain America.

Gallaher: Grocery Stores were my gateway drug to comics too. The more outlets the better. Having comics at the grocery store also made me WANT to go grocery shopping with my mom every week. Bob Layton’s HERCULES at Safeway in Mount Airy, Maryland was my first grocery store comic.

Gage: I got GODZILLA and SHOGUN WARRIORS at Hodes Food City in Grafton. Never looked back.

Igle: Grocery chains still sell comics, so you need to do a line that caters to what they know. Digest with all ages(not kiddie specifically) work in grocery stores.

[kingdom warrior]

I actually had a few sources as a child. My Main place was a great Newspaper stand in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.

There was also a great comic book stand inside a grocery store a few blocks away that continue selling comics to this day.

Plus I lived in a hispanic neighborhood so I would go to another news stand where they would have all types of comics in spanish....to my Joy.

My Local supermarket sells comics. I buy the Archie digest stuff. My secret addiction...

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I don't remember getting regular comics there, but you could always get digests. (Regular comics were readily available at every variety store and newsstand.) Funny thing; I remember DC and Harvey trying the digest thing for abit but giving it up after a couple years. I wonder if that format is somehow intrinsicly linked to Archie.

Don C.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I got most of my comics from drug stores. There were 4 in town that carried comics, and one convenient mart/gas station. No grocery stores did at the time. One of the drug stores was just up the street from my house, so that was my main source.

I loved DC's digests. I still have a ton of them. Marvel's brief dabble in them stunk on ice. The printing quality was horrible, and they didn't resize the word balloons, so all the text was tiny.

DC tried half-heartedly to get into digests a few years back with some animated titles and it didn't work.

I think DC or Marvel should launch a whole new series (like another, separate Justice Legaue title) with a decent creative team in digest format and put them out at non comic shop outlets. That should prove if the market is viable still.

Chris

[Iron Mego]

Grocery store for me. One in particular. If there was a comic store in my town at the time, I didn't know about it, and probably wouldn't have been able to get to it by bike.
At some point though I had subs to my favorites, Spider-Man, The Avengers and Iron Man.

[SlipperyLilSuckers]

Convenience store or Newsagent for me.

[knight errant00]

Drugstores and bookstores mostly, for me.

[toys2cool]

eckerd drugs for me

[wyatterb]

A lot of my childhood comics came from grocery stores.

[wayne foundation 07]

There was a Kroger nearby growing up I remember getting Casper and Archie at.The use to take some that were a couple weeks old and put them in a plastic bag and sell them cheap as a group.Being 10 or 11 and all I had was paper route money to send that was a pretty big deal.

[The Toyroom]

Drug stores (many many 3 packs for $1.00)...and eventually newstands

[Mikey]

We had 2 grocery stores back in the day -- Shop-Rite and Grand Union

Both only carried Archie comics

For real comics you had to go to the drug store.

[MIB41]

I actually bought most of mine at a corner drugstore called Night Owl. They use to be a prevalent chain of stores like Convenient. By the late 70's we finally got a comic book specialty store called the "Great Escape" and that became my headquarters from that point until present. Although I will say I go in there more for vintage toys than comics these days.

[toyman]

Had a 7/11 we would walk to from school each morning,a drug store near home,a dollar store and a quick stop(dad would stop here for a beer and i would get comics not to tell mom-worked out pretty good).

[madmarva]

Safeway and Walgreens were my comic-book stores from 1973-1980 or 81.

Around 80 or 81 I was able to go to a comic book store about once a month until I could drive in 1984. After that I made, it there weekly.

I think the price point on comics is an obstacle for them to return to most grocery and drug stores. Space for magazines in general is shrinking. It would be tough to convince managers to alot space to comics without showing that they can make money for them and not just we a waste of space and time, keeping them orderly. Also do store managers really want kids hanging around looking at and reading books that they probably won't end up buying.