Welcome to Store Tour, ROBOT 6’s weekly exploration of comics shops, and the people who run them. Each Sunday we feature a different store, and also get to know the person behind the register.

To discover a comic store in your area, visit FindAComicShop.com

This week’s store is Emerald City Comics, located at 4902 113th Ave. N. in Clearwater, Florida. We spoke with general manager Chad Rivard.

ROBOT 6: Tell me about the layout of your store. How did you work that out?

Chad Rivard: Since October 2013, we are in a giant warehouse. We now have over 6,000 square feet of retail floor space, plus another 6,000 square feet of space that includes our Events Room, warehouse and offices. Our "New Wall" is the back wall of the store, so guests coming in to see all the new games, comics, books and toys will see a lot of the store on the way there. For the most part, everything is organized by category (comics/books/games/toys), because we have so much merchandise in each category that it's more feasible to put it all together instead of in featured "franchise" kiosks (like Star Wars, Adventure Time, etc). We do still have some featured sections, though, like Walking Dead and Doctor Who. We also have a large section of comics and books and toys appropriate for all ages, that we call our Animation section. We used to call it the Kids section, but then adults didn't think they were allowed to browse all the awesomeness there!





What's the secret origin of your store? How did you decide on its name and its location?

Our CEO, Neil Johnson, opened Emerald City in Seminole in 1989 to give the community the pop-culture superstore that he never had growing up. He named the store "Emerald City" because in Wizard of Oz, one of his favorite movies, it was the place everyone went to have their wishes granted -- and he wanted his store to be the place where everyone's pop culture wishes came true. The response to the store was so amazing that Emerald City expanded by opening a second location in northern Clearwater in 1994. The two stores continued to thrive -- so much that the original Seminole location had outgrown itself! Emerald City was able to purchase a warehouse that is centrally located in the Tampa Bay Area, and on Oct. 1, 2013, the two stores moved and merged into one mammoth pop culture mega-store!

Why did you decide to get into comics retailing? What in your background do you think made you particularly suited for the retail side of comics?

Neil was a huge comic book fan since childhood, and he used his personal collection to start the back issue section of Emerald City when it first opened -- but he was always wise to approach EC as a successful business instead of as a hobby. Since the beginning, he has always brought in team members who are passionate about comics or games or toys -- but most importantly, they are friendly and knowledgeable and hard-working.





Do you have a philosophy or strategy to retailing?

We make our guests happy by offering them the pop culture merchandise they want in a clean and neat store staffed by a friendly and knowledgeable team! We carry a stellar selection of pop-culture items -- including comic books, games and toys -- for all ages and interests!

In our advertising, we say, "Your best memories are here at EC!" There's a double meaning there: We have a ton of characters and merchandise that you remember fondly from your childhood, but we are also making new "best memories" in how we treat our guests and in the fun events we host!

Among our team, we like to say that Wednesday's New Comics Day is like Christmas, and Saturdays are like Disney World. On Wednesday mornings, all the new comics and toys are out like Christmas morning, and we are giving away gifts -- we always have a giveaway for the first people in the store when we open (and again at 7 p.m. as some guests get in after work), and we have a raffle for some great item or prize pack! On Saturdays, we often have some amazing event with Costumed Heroes and sales and activities -- and sometimes another giveaway and raffle!

Over the years, we have come to realize that we are not so much in the "comics" business as we are in the "experience" business. If we give folks a fun reason to come in, and then we make sure we are friendly and helpful and knowledgeable to our guests, the money will follow.





What are your current bestsellers?

In our books category, Image Comics rules! Our biggest-selling graphic novel in the store -- beating even Walking Dead volumes -- is Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples's Saga. After that and Walking Dead, our next-biggest book is Rat Queens. Marvel Comics is the publisher with the next-biggest book, Civil War. Image takes three more slots with Sex Criminals, Black Science and East of West, before DC Comics takes the next few slots with Scott Snyder's Batman trade paperbacks and The Killing Joke hardcover. Two other notable bestsellers are Mark Russell and Shannon Wheeler's God is Disappointed in You and J.J. Abrams' novel called S. They are the only two books in our bestsellers that are not from the "big three" publishers.

In single-issue comic books, the three new Star Wars comics have been some of our biggest sellers, along with Spider-Gwen, Secret Wars, Harley Quinn, Starfire and Convergence. DC and Marvel pretty much dominate this category, but Image gets in too with The Walking Dead.

Marvel dominates our toys category! One of our most popular toy lines is Funko's "blind box" mini-figurines, and some of the bestsellers in that line are Marvel's general Mystery Minis, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Age of Ultron. In the larger-size toy items, Marvel rules again with the Infinity Gauntlet bank, Funko Pop! Groot and Rocket Raccoon and Thanos, and pretty much anything Deadpool!

There are a great variety of games among our bestsellers: Boss Monster (the dungeon-building card game), Dungeons & Dragons fifth-edition role-playing game, Star Realms (a spaceship combat deck-building game), Adventure Time Card Wars and the King of Tokyo board game.





What is your customer base like? How has it changed over time, if at all?

More and more women and families are becoming regular guests for us, as we continue to offer merchandise and events that appeal to a wider audience. In a field that is often dominated by males, we are happy to say that almost a third of our Rewards Card holders are female! And since many couples and families have their collective Rewards Card under the man's name, that makes an even higher percentage of female guests at EC!

Our Rewards Card is our loyalty program. It's totally free, and it gives you money off after you've purchased so many items under a category. For example, after you've purchased 10 graphic novels, you will get a store credit equal to the average price of those 10 books! Right now, we have similar programs for back-issue comics, games and toys.

How do you reach out to new customers? How do you advertise?

We run our ads on different TV shows, such as Walking Dead, Flash and Arrow. We sponsor a local show on The CW called 44 on the Town, which features movie reviews and spotlights on local Tampa Bay Area businesses. Our marketing director runs a ton of cross-promotions with movie theaters, video game stores, performing arts centers, schools, libraries, parks & rec departments, and various charities. For these cross-promotions, we often go out with Costumed Heroes, EC NewsFlyers, and coupons.



You seem very active online with your website, weekly newsletter and social media, like Facebook. How do you feel that supports or supplements your store?

One of the best things we've ever done for Emerald City is to bring in our marketing and talent development director, Darryl Blaker! He joined us when we moved and merged our two stores into the one mega-store, and he's helped us bring in more new guests than we imagined we could! We work hard to bring tons of fun new items into the store, and to create events, sales, and specials to make our guests' visits rewarding -- but they won't know about all the fun without our website, emails, in-store NewsFlyers, and our social media presence! Darryl gets the word out to make sure everyone knows to come visit EC!



You're also an active eBay seller. Why did you decide to do that versus setting up an online store?

We love eBay for being able to reach a huge audience with something neat and unique, like our EC exclusive comic book covers we've been getting -- such as the Alan Davis Star Wars #1, and the Adam Riches GI Joe #212 and Star Trek / Green Lantern #1. But we do have an online store now too! We have promoted one of our guest service specialists to online sales specialist, and she's getting new items on the shop like lightning! We have almost 300 items for sale on the site already, with more being added constantly.

Do you have any events or programming, such as signings? How is it coordinating those?

Creator signings are often part of our events! Recently, we've hosted signings by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bob Andelman, Chuck Dixon, Charles Ross from One-Man Star Wars, Adam Riches, Darwyn Cooke, MC Chris, and a charity event featuring a bunch of local artists. The creators are usually very easy to work with, and we all do our best to make sure our creators and guests have a great time at these events!





Does your store attend conventions? Does it benefit from them?

We have sometimes attended local conventions, where we sell some of our unique toys and rare vintage comics. Usually we make featured displays in the store of the work of the creators who will be attending the larger conventions in Florida. Our guests can find items that they want to bring to the conventions to have signed.

What is the industry's biggest asset that is helping you be successful?

Amazingly well-made movies and TV shows (like Netflix's Daredevil!) are creating an all-new audience for what we carry!

What do you see as the biggest challenge in the comics industry today that particularly impacts your store?

The popularity of "geek culture" is double-edged, as more and more local stores are popping up that carry some combination of comics and games and toys -- and even some of the big-box stores are carrying more merchandise that used to be our "niche." As I said before, though, we see ourselves as being more in the experience business than anything else, so as long as we are delivering a great experience to our guests -- making their trip to EC the best part of their day -- we will remain successful!





With all of the people that come through your store, I imagine you must have some great stories. What is the funniest or most memorable moment you've seen in your store?

During a Batman event, we had Costumed Heroes in the store portraying Batman, Batwoman and Nightwing. A young boy visited the store with his grandfather, walked up to the very tall and muscular Nightwing, gave him the stink-eye, and said, "I know you killed Robin and took his place!" We tried to convince him that Joker and Heretic were the only Robin killers, but the boy said he saw Nightwing do it! We were just glad his grandfather got him out of the store before the police were summoned ...





If you’d like to see your store featured here on Robot 6, email us.