On Business: Drive-Through LCS

On of the why-isn't-everyone-doing-this-yet ideas I've seen in comics retailing is the notion of turning the store into a destination itself. That is, make the store the reason people go there instead of just letting it be some building that happens to have comics for sale. I think the direction of comics retailing in the future will be trying to make shops a place to be and not just a place to stop by. Lounge chairs, maybe a bar or a coffee shop. Starbucks, but with comics.

Some shops are definitely doing this already. The Isotope Lounge was the first one I had heard of. The recently opened Amalgam Comics has a coffeehouse inside. These types of shops seems to be doing well, and I think we'll see more of them as shop owners are able to save/borrow enough money to make these types of conversions. (This type of thing ain't cheap, you know!)

But here's another idea I've thought of, but never seen: a comic shop with a drive-through window. Just like a McDonald's or a Starbucks, you could swing through the driveway, order the latest issue of Superman or whatever, pick it up and pay at the window, and drive off without ever leaving your car. Or perhaps regular customers could grab everything that's already in their file.

Now this kind of goes against the lounge/coffee shop idea I noted earlier, but it might still work. After all, Starbucks have drive-throughs in many of their locations.

I think that if an owner wanted to try this, they'd almost need to buy/lease a space that already had a drive-through established. A former fast food joint or something. And if that were the case, it would almost certainly require some not-inexpensive renovations on the inside. I have no idea if this would actually work from a practical sense, but I'd be curious to see if someone has made a go of it. I mean, it's not any crazier than the DC ComicMobile from the mid-70s!

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