The greatest Comic Book Store in the West (of Yorkshire)

A few days ago I spoke of an awful customer experience I had with the video-game shop “GAME”. It was an example of a bad choice of how to cater for a niche market; to have low understanding of their needs and to focus solely on Sales.

In the city of Leeds, we have an example of the polar opposite. A store that has a niche market , but looks after them superbly. That store is called “OK Comics”. Today, I’d like to talk through what they do, and why I believe they are a shining example of creating first-class customer experience.

OK Comics is a two-floor sales unit situated in a passageway between two of the main streets in the heart of Leeds. They have won awards for customer service and independent retail. They sell, as the name suggests, Comic Books and graphic novels. Unlike some other similar stores, they do not sell huge amounts of auxiliary paraphernalia. When you go into OK Comics, you really do get the sense that it is all about the comic books.

Think Gamestop is bad? You clearly haven’t been to GAME in England

Today I’m going to take a quick break from talking about space (don’t worry, the following article will be a tribute to the International Space Station) and instead I’ll talk about Gamestop.

I listen to several gaming podcasts, a number of which are American, and something I’ve heard mentioned a number of times is how irritating gamers find shopping at Gamestop. I went to a gamestop during my time in Chicago, and honestly, I didn't mind it. Why not? The UK equivalent is a store called “GAME” which you will find in any given town or City in England.

GAME - the horrible British version of Gamestop

Let me tell you, if you think that Gamestop is bad, you’ve clearly never been to GAME. It was reported that in the Fiscal Year 2009-2010, GAME had a rough time. I’m not surprised, given their frankly awful customer service.  Let me talk you through my usual customer journey every time I make the mistake of setting foot in a GAME store.

Now before I continue, let me add this disclaimer: I am what I would call a “proper gamer”. In other words, not a casual gamer. But, if anyone from GAME is reading this, don’t use that as an excuse; funnily enough, it is logical to assume that a good chunk of GAME’s customers  are “proper gamers”, so you’d damn sure better think about how you treat them.