I have never been a fan of comic book stores in malls. They are usually too small, cramped and it seems they don’t have much storage space for surplus inventory, things not being used or old merchandise not for sale anymore. I can’t count the times I have been to a comic book store in a mall and the owner of the store has the vacuum cleaner stored in the corner because there is no closet or storage room. So stuff is usually piled up in the corners or behind the counter. The other issue is that when the owner realizes that comic books aren’t really selling they start adding other products such as sports memorabilia, sports trading cards, gaming and other non-comic book merchandise.
So I ended it up in the Collector’s Corner-Double Play in the Burlington Center Mall and right away I realized that this store really needs to change or close. There were boxes piled up all over the place. The aisles were hard to get through and that made it hard to look at any of the back issues and other merchandise in the store. It seemed very cluttered and not well-organized or clean.
When I walk into a comic book store I like to be greeted and made to feel welcome to the store. This didn’t happen when I walked in; the gentleman behind the counter (who I am guessing was the owner) was on the phone the whole time I was in the store and seemed more concerned with his fantasy sports team then making a sale or making prospective customers feel welcome.
There was another “customer” in the store who seemed to want to ask the sales person a question about a comic book and was totally ignored and left without making a purchase. As I stated it was hard to get to the back issues boxes. I will say that the new comic books were laid out nicely and he had a good choice of titles. The one thing about the way the new comics are displayed is that he did it on shelves that had the comics lying flat; I am a person who thinks that displaying them upright is a better way, but that is a personal bias.
I have been in comic book stores all over the NJ/NY/PA area and the Collector’s Corner-Double Play made the top 10 list of stores I would not go back to; its at about a 5 on that list. I would go back if I am at the mall but I will not be going back to Burlington just to go to the Collector’s Corner-Double Play.