Batman is not amused at your lack of retail savvy

I don't know how horribly relevant this is or how many of you read comic books anymore (yes, they still publish them and yes, some of us still read them) but I just wanted to make good on the old adage about telling 100 people when something goes wrong as opposed to telling 10 when it goes right and let those of you who might shop there(for your children or for yourselves) that Bedrock Comics on Route 9 in Framingham, Massachusetts doesn't appreciate your business. Or rather, they didn't appreciate mine.

While I've had a multitude of small issues with them since I started shopping there on and off in the spring of 2007, the worst issues are as follows:

They've often told me they're going to order something for me, and when I ask them about it later they act as if this promise to order something is news to them. This doesn't seem like a big deal on it's face, but it's an annoying pain in the ass all the same and it's the first strike against them.

They've told me more than once that a book has sold out or didn't come in when there is a stack of them on the shelf right behind the register, and one of the two guys at the counter just forgot to shelve them… last week. Again, an annoyance. But shopping here has become the death of a thousand papercuts.

Finally, the very last time I was there I was rudely told to stop reading my books before buying them, but not until after they're already rung up my stack and I'd signed the credit card slip. I'm not mad that I was told not to read the books (… yes I am), I'm mad that I was told this after I had purchased (read: PAID FOR) a stack of books.

I understand a "don't read the books" policy, and I appreciate the basic premise. I DO! But as a consumer I also don't have the budget or the time to buy every single issue of everything with an interesting cover. A cover doesn't sell a story, and these aren't one-shot stories I'm reading, so I screen my books. Without screening, my collection would be full of 1 or 2 issues of a thousand some-odd incidental series, all too horrible to name. Yes, I admit your store would sell a lot more issues (assuming I bought everything I'm reading now), but without screening I have to stick to titles I know I want to buy or trade paperbacks that I already know I want; That means I'm not buying doodly squat anymore, unless it's got Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman's name on it.

I probably spend more on comic books and related merchandise in a year than I do lunches in the area, and I was spending a fair amount of that at Bedrock. The shop knows me by sight, and while they've always had smiling faces, they've never treated me like I was anything except an inconvenience to their ebay browsing time.

As much as I wanted to demand a $13.94 refund for my stack when this happened and make this into a scene for the benefit of the unwashed, smelly, mouth-breather who was happened to reading an X-Men comic (and therefore wouldn't appreciate irony if he witnessed it in all it's screaming glory), I'm too old for that sort of thing now. I've grown soft in my desire to see people get their comeuppance.

I'm simply going to write the owner a letter explaining everything I've just told you, and tell him that I'm done shopping there. Am I happy about driving to some place like Somerville, MA for books (Comicazi is an excellent local chain by the way, but they're an hour from my house) or giving a larger chain like Newbury Comics my money? Not really. Well… Yes, I am because Comicazi reminds me so much of EarthWorld Comics back home. But I can definitively state that I'm never going back to Bedrock Comics, and if you're passionate about this dirty, dirty hobby of ours, there probably isn't any compelling reason for you to either.