Marvel's return to the 'Spinner Rack'

[Lee Stone]

Shame.
I just saw #4 at the grocery store a couple weeks ago and it looked really good.

[gurkle]

I almost never saw these digests in supermarkets in my city (I think I saw the Avengers vs. Thanos one around the time of Infinity War). I mostly saw them in specialty comics stores, which of course defeats the purpose. I don't know if others saw them alongside the regular Archie supermarket digests.

I think in retrospect it would have been better to just include a run of consecutive issues in the digests. The regular 616 ongoing comics, especially, don't excerpt well, because they're so serialized that if you reprint one issue (or even a three-issue storyline) it feels like wandering into a party uninvited. Kids would probably have been more intrigued by a digest that started with the Black Panther's first storyline in Fantastic Four and then a few of the Fantastic Four issues that followed it. They could have called it "Black Panther and his Fantastic Friends" or something. Instead they had that and a random selection of kid-friendly stories with Black Panther in them, and there just wasn't the consistency in style that makes the Archie digests work.

[Prof. Warren]

I almost never saw these digests in supermarkets in my city (I think I saw the Avengers vs. Thanos one around the time of Infinity War). I mostly saw them in specialty comics stores, which of course defeats the purpose. I don't know if others saw them alongside the regular Archie supermarket digests.

I think in retrospect it would have been better to just include a run of consecutive issues in the digests. The regular 616 ongoing comics, especially, don't excerpt well, because they're so serialized that if you reprint one issue (or even a three-issue storyline) it feels like wandering into a party uninvited. Kids would probably have been more intrigued by a digest that started with the Black Panther's first storyline in Fantastic Four and then a few of the Fantastic Four issues that followed it. They could have called it "Black Panther and his Fantastic Friends" or something. Instead they had that and a random selection of kid-friendly stories with Black Panther in them, and there just wasn't the consistency in style that makes the Archie digests work.

I also never saw these in supermarkets or even in the big box chains like Wal-Mart, just comic stores.

And I agree that they made a poor choice in how they selected stories. I don't necessarily know if consecutive runs would have been better but as is, these collections felt way too scattershot.

And I don't think the digest format was great for these reprints, either. Why would I want to buy these when I can spend a little more and get, say, an Epic Collection that gives me a good chunk of comics and in a larger, much more appealing format? The digest books are so small, it's difficult to even enjoy the reading experience.

[Iron Maiden]

Never saw any of the Marvel ones in my area. Even the Archie Digests are a bit scarce. I'd usually see them at the small racks in the check out line, along with the crossword puzzle books.

[Blunt Guy]

I bought them whenever I saw them, but only managed to get 4. I go to the same Publix a few times every week, but only saw the Marvel Digests every few months. If distribution was the same everywhere, I can see why they never caught on. There has to be more than a half-hearted effort for something like this to succeed.

[PaulBullion]

That's a bummer.

[JKtheMac]

I imagine orders would have been up to the purchasing managers, and supermarket shelves are perhaps the most competitive space in the retail world. When the managers are weighing up how much space to dedicate to periodicals I don’t imaging a comics digest comes high on their list of priorities. I imagine Archie were hoping they might be positioned in high profile spots and garner interest in their other products, but it sounds like they were never given this push by the stores.

[Raye]

which is exactly the problem when people bring up returning the books spinner racks as a fix for flagging sales. Some people seem to think that as soon as they make the decision to sell them there, they will just kind of materialize on the shelves lining grocery store checkout lines, or at Walmart, or wherever else, and kids would buy them in droves, just like it was back in the day. But it's just not that simple, you need more than the decision to sell them in a different market, you also need that market to decide to carry them, and people to decide to buy them there, should they decide to do so, both of which are far from guaranteed, and not something Marvel or any other publisher has much control over beyond making them available. Don't get me wrong, losing any means of distribution can only hurt, so it's a shame that this is happening. Just saying, i think some were thinking it was an easier solution than it really was.

I don't know what the solution to getting the comics in more hands is, exactly, but if it was a simple solution, it would have been done by now. From the sounds of it, Scholastic deals may be the best way of attracting new readers, but it is a way that is largely invisible to us once out of gradeschool. But even that is just a small piece of the puzzle, it will probably take many small things.

[JKtheMac]

which is exactly the problem when people bring up returning the books spinner racks as a fix for flagging sales. Some people seem to think that as soon as they make the decision to sell them there, they will just kind of materialize on the shelves lining grocery store checkout lines, or at Walmart, or wherever else, and kids would buy them in droves, just like it was back in the day. But it's just not that simple, you need more than the decision to sell them in a different market, you also need that market to decide to carry them, and people to decide to buy them there, should they decide to do so, both of which are far from guaranteed, and not something Marvel or any other publisher has much control over beyond making them available. Don't get me wrong, losing any means of distribution can only hurt, so it's a shame that this is happening. Just saying, i think some were thinking it was an easier solution than it really was.

I don't know what the solution to getting the comics in more hands is, exactly, but if it was a simple solution, it would have been done by now. From the sounds of it, Scholastic deals may be the best way of attracting new readers, but it is a way that is largely invisible to us once out of gradeschool. But even that is just a small piece of the puzzle, it will probably take many small things.

Sadly all too true. I have heard a suggestion that Marvel and DC should press cinemas to allow pop-up stores in the foyer for local comic shops to sell trades, but again this brings up all sorts of established practices relating to who pays for foyer promotion and how the space is designed and utilised. Would a cinema allow a retailer to compete against popcorn sales? There are so many economic factors in these ideas.

I can understand why Gabriel was keen, but he doesn’t have as much sway over supermarkets and grocery stores, or potentially cinema chains as he does local stores.

[skyvolt2000]

I imagine orders would have been up to the purchasing managers, and supermarket shelves are perhaps the most competitive space in the retail world. When the managers are weighing up how much space to dedicate to periodicals I don’t imaging a comics digest comes high on their list of priorities. I imagine Archie were hoping they might be positioned in high profile spots and garner interest in their other products, but it sounds like they were never given this push by the stores.

I see the Archie digests and even saw the Marvel ones. Archie at least in the black community of Dallas NEVER suffered an issue of shelf space in stores. They SOLD OUT many times. It is ODD DC's 100 pagers are not on shelves ANYWHERE in Dallas/Fort Worth area. And folks were looking for them.

Most stores have a set place for magazines. So space should not be an issue. If we are talking at MOST 4-5 copies (as I have seen) versus the others who leave larger piles.

There has to be more than a half-hearted effort for something like this to succeed.

Too piggyback on what JktheMac said-part of the issue is how many of these books make it to the STORES let alone the shelves.

If every store chain is getting the SAME number of books-why does some never hit the shelves?

I'll give examples-

Marvel Rising dolls. For some ODD reason Patriot never made it to any shelves in Dallas/Fort Worth area. He BARELY stayed in stock online at Target. Barely as in you had 2 minutes to get your order or be out of LUCK. So last week's ad promoted the dolls and he was MIA.
Star Wars Solo-Donald Glover Lando toys-NO store had him. He never made it to the shelves. To this day he is STILL Not there.
2016 Fantastic Four movie DVD or Blue Ray-it never made the shelves at a lot of stores.
Young Justice Aqualad deluxe figure-99% of the stores here did not have him in stock.
Batman: Brave & Bold figures that came out the same day got tossed in clearance at various stores.
Mack Wilds (90210 & The Wire), Childish Gambino & Marques Houston all put out cds in November of 2009. No store here had them in stock until March 2010.
Don't even get me started on black action figures.

Folks wonder why stuff don't sell-when stuff like that happens-you get poor sales.