Maybe I can pay for the weekly comics shipment with toilet paper and bottled water.
So I expected some kind of dropoff in business this weekend due to the coronavirus, but surprisingly sales remained within their usual range, if not, perhaps, slightly above what I estimated. Now it could be people coming in and loading up on reading material for their sequestering, or that the full impact of what’s going on hasn’t quite settled in (though that’s hard to argue if you’ve seen the state of any grocery stores in the last couple of days), but so far, I’ve been doing okay.
Now whether that continues as everything continues to shut down and more people decide to stay home, I don’t know. Or it could be that folks are just in initial panic mode and that perhaps behavior will begin to normalize as the realization sets in that the world isn’t ending just yet. Again, don’t know.
It’s a level of uncertainty that I’m not particularly enjoying, as I’m sure most people out there are also experiencing. “How do I make money if I don’t work?” “How do I make money if no one is making money to spend at my store?” “How do I make money if people stop going out to shop?” It’s pretty rough. I have to worry about paying my rent, paying for the weekly Diamond invoices, paying myself so I can pay my regular expenses, oh, and saving up for a tax bill that I didn’t think I was going to have up until about two weeks ago. If money stops coming in, then I’ve got no money to go out, and that will be that.
Like I said, business has remained relatively steady, and it could be I’m worrying too much. Could be I’ll ride this out just fine, pinching pennies here and there, taking in few collections, while income is still coming in, even at slightly reduced levels. And I’m still doing mail order, and have offered my local customers the option to ship their books to them if they would rather not make the trip. But if things cut off entirely…well, my landlord and Diamond and my various utilities will hopefully be understanding.
Sigh. Anyway, so it’s not all doom and gloom, let me show you this pic that pal Matt Digges gave to me as a birthday present this weekend:
Heck yeah that’s Arcane and Cranius from Swamp Thing! And you guys know I loves me some Cranius.
Okay, let’s see what the week brings us. Hopefully things will get better, we’ll all start trying to lead normal (if health-conscious) lives, and panic rushes on grocery stores will subside. I mean, I certainly hope they do, I’m runnin’ short on paper towels.
I know in my household we’re looking for relatively inexpensive ways to entertain my children who have an unexpected month-long vacation. My trip to the LCS this weekend very likely will involved some extra comics for that purpose!
The panic sort of feeds itself, doesn’t it?
If people are panicking and hoarding at the grocery store, it shows everyone that there is something to panic about, because they are having trouble finding necessities.
So, this creates quite a panic spiral.
If the hoarders would just realize that there is no shortage of, say, toilet paper; and calm down, then I think that would help alleviate some fears that we’re living in post-apocalyptic times.
Rather than be cautious and smart, but don’t panic times.
I was expecting it’d take about a week before the hoarding mentality lost its hold. That was a week ago Wednesday, so we’ll see.
I may have been far too optimistic.
Wishing you the best during these trying days!
I’m trying to figure out a responsible comics-buying strategy — balancing a limited contact with people, but still participating economically. It’s a light week for me, so I think I’ll sit this week out, and let my pull list slide till next Wednesday (while giving my shop a call and saying I’ll probably be in on an every-other-week basis for the next month or so). There’s a nice older lady who works at the shop (and maybe co-owns it with her sons; I’m not sure), and I want no part of possibly getting her sick.