It sounds like you have fun at your work, but if I went to a store and the employees were acting like that, I'd feel really awkward and uncomfortable.
J de Guzman | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 5:48 pm | #

I'm sorry you'd feel that way.
Kevin Church | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 5:52 pm | #

Yeah, Kevin...why weren't you two playing Magic: The Gathering or watching anime on the in-store TV like any self-respecting comic shop employees?
Mikester | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 6:03 pm | #

I know; we should make the effort to be sullen and unwilling to help our customers.

(Surprisingly: sold a copy of Invincible: Atom Eve #1 and chatted about how she doesn't like the X-Men very much for a few minutes.)
Kevin Church | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 6:15 pm | #

Quick willingness to hop up and actually walk the customer to the shelf and talk about her needs rather than pointing vaguely? Yeah, I'd shop there.
Bully | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 6:26 pm | #

Wait...showing some personality and interacting with the customer can sell comics? The devil you say!
Mikester | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 6:33 pm | #

God, you people take it. It's either "wacky" or "sullen and nerdy," is it? I just prefer to shop at places where the employees don't punch each other, however playful, while they're talking to me. It says, "We're having fun that you can't understand, you outsider!" and it's just as unwelcoming in another respect.

Sorry to interrupt the cult meeting. I just a comics professional offering a different perspective. I'll move along now.
J de Guzman | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 7:05 pm | #

Vague pointing gets a bad rap.
Chris Sims | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 7:27 pm | #

I really don't like interacting with comic book store employees in any capacity whatsoever.
Tim O'Neil | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 7:31 pm | #

As a comics professional on the retail end for over 20 years...a little silliness happens in stores every once in a while. Most people have a sense of humor about it.

I'm sure Kevin and Heather don't put on a floor show for the customers 8 hours a day. And they know when to turn it off when they need to...as demonstrated in Kevin's very story.

If this brief exposure to a modicum of silliness would be enough to make you feel uncomfortable about shopping at a store...well, I don't know what to tell you. It seemed minor and harmless to me, but then I have a pretty good sense of perspective, and a realization that human beings aren't robots and that you'll occasionally catch them with their professional guard down.

The difference between a good store and a bad one is the employees knowing when to turn it off...which Kevin and Heather demonstrated, and which, as Kevin notes above, resulted in a sale and a relationship with a customer.

I'm sure if they were dealing with a humorless drone, they'd keep it dialed down to an appropriate level.
Mikester | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 7:57 pm | #

Red-head?

Punching?

*mails application*
James | 06.03.08 - 9:00 pm | #

No, no, James. Heather doesn't...ok, she dyes her hair and it's a bit reddish, but the red-headed customer was not punching me.

I mean, maybe she should have. Who knows anymore.
Kevin Church | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 9:05 pm | #

Redheads and punching?

Miss me, Kevin?

You should have made the argument that Poison Ivy is a Superheroine to crazy tree hugging seductresses.
Novice | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 9:37 pm | #

And this is why I have no worries about Sundays.
Michael | 06.03.08 - 10:12 pm | #

Geez, J de Guzman...

You really DO believe in "Slave Labor".

;-)
Phantom-Longbox | 06.03.08 - 10:56 pm | #

I have been in this kind of situation before, and I get the whole "sense of humor at work" thing, but I would be pretty uncomfortable trying to talk to someone who was busy fucking around with their friends, it would make me feel as if I were imposing on them, and that is not how someone should feel when they walk into your shop to buy your things.

Just my opinion, but I agree with J de Guzman.
cmcqueen | 06.03.08 - 11:40 pm | #

HUMOR AND FUN SHALL BE RESTRICTED TO ONLY APPROVED FUN AREAS.

ANY NONAPPROVED HUMOR AND FUN IS DOUBLEPLUSUNGOOD.
Chris Sims | Homepage | 06.03.08 - 11:51 pm | #

I'm ok with the two things being separate.

And hey, beats phone-based tech support, right?
James | 06.04.08 - 1:18 am | #

W...O...W. This experience has sure taught me not to have fun at work (even when visiting), to maintain my professional demeanor at all times, and to second guess every action least I offend one of these faceless internet people (or apparently the countless others like them). Please accept my humblest apologies and thank you so much for this lesson in decorum and station.
Heather | 06.04.08 - 7:20 am | #

Heather -- and now you know what its like to be a schoolteacher.
ScienceGiant | 06.04.08 - 3:59 pm | #

Heather, NEVER stop punching Kevin.
It's the kind of fun behavior that makes me a devoted regular. I have a comic store within 10 miles of me, but I drive the 50 miles into the city to hang out with the friendliest store around.
Garth McMurray | 06.04.08 - 10:50 pm | #

The local comic shop nearest me has a guy and girl who act like Kevin and Heather. It's why I drive to the next town over to buy my comics and for the mail orders for my two friends in Japan.

I don't need a floor show, just consistently pulled comics and a friendly atmosphere, vague pointing is good too.

Thanks for the sarcasm, Heather. How about clocking out and going home instead of wasting Kevin's productivity at work.
julius brown | 06.05.08 - 3:22 am | #

I would far rather go to a store where the employees have a sense of humour and are not dead-eyed androids - sadly I have to rely on the postman for my monthly comics fix. This scene just makes me wish I had a comic store near me...
Adam Horovitz | 06.05.08 - 4:01 am | #

I gotta say, if the customer didn't mind, if the employees didn't mind, if the owner didn't mind, and the only people who mind are a cluster of humor-deprived, bluenosed busfuckers on the Internet -- I'm looking at you, J de Guzman, cmcqueen, and julius brown -- then I don't really think there's a problem at that store at all.
Scott | Homepage | 06.05.08 - 10:17 am | #

How about clocking out and going home instead of wasting Kevin's productivity at work.

The shop doesn't have a timeclock, Julius.

Duh.
Kevin Church | Homepage | 06.05.08 - 10:27 am | #

I have the good luck to shop at a place where they are not only professional and knowledgeable , but next door to a bar.

A little arm punching seems to be of little to no concern. In fact more arm punching might be in order.
josh a | 06.05.08 - 10:45 am | #

I think you should look into having a redhead on staff who punches the customers. Rrrraaooww!
steve canadian | 06.05.08 - 11:47 am | #

I can't believe this is isssue-at a comic shop. I think that context should matter. If I walked into Goldman Sachs to open an account and there were a couple of money managers punching each other, different story. If I walk into a comic book store-a comic book store-well let's just say there are different expectations. And this is not a knock on the professionalism of a comic book store, as a matter of fact, sounds like the customer got pretty good customer service.
awb | 06.05.08 - 12:20 pm | #

I'll hire either of you. If you were joshing around and ignored the customer, then I might criticize. Instead you lent an air of frivolity, were attentive to the customer's needs, and made a sale. The horror.
vam | 06.05.08 - 12:26 pm | #

"God, you people take it. It's either "wacky" or "sullen and nerdy," is it? I just prefer to shop at places where the employees don't punch each other, however playful, while they're talking to me. It says, "We're having fun that you can't understand, you outsider!" and it's just as unwelcoming in another respect."

Considering your whole schtick is how miserable you are working in comics, get out of the damn glass house.
Dan Coyle | 06.05.08 - 2:37 pm | #

What am I doing with my money? I'm wasting it at a comics shop where the employees DON'T constantly act dour and miserable despite low retail pay? What the hell am I thinking?

Oh, I'm not a miserable asshole. That was it.
awb hit the nail on the head earlier, if this was going on in a library, that would be one thing. But seeing how it's a COMIC shop, I think it's ok.
Mike C. | 06.05.08 - 5:13 pm | #

I am shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- that those whom society has decreed are my humble servants should ever display human emotion or frivolity in any endeavor! In fact, I'm shocked to learn that, at the end of the day, you people don't just step into a walk-in closet stationed behind the counter (hidden from view by a poster advertising my very favoritest comic IN THE WORLD), close the door behind you, and power yourselves down for the night. It's like you think you are people
kittens for breakfast | 06.05.08 - 6:28 pm | #

Why are girls allowed to work in the first place? Barefoot & PREGGERS, i say!
Chuck_Brick | 06.05.08 - 7:05 pm | #

I'm sorry I find Red Sonja being called a superheroine far more offensive than anything else in the tale.
Cal | 06.05.08 - 11:08 pm | #

Methinks some of the people posting to this thread need to remove the giant bars of barbed metal from their collectie butts and relax.
Rich Handley | Homepage | 06.06.08 - 1:44 am | #

The last straw with my local comic store was when the owner snatched Free Comic Book Day comics from my 7 year old son's hand, telling me that "they were for paying customers only". Punching and helping is preferable to what I got. The kicker is, I haven't bought a comic book since.
greed | 06.09.08 - 9:43 am | #