The next 13 blog entries will be about each of the locations in the Graham Crackers Comics chain, and what better way to start than with the flagship store, Naperville. I have been manager here in Naperville for 17 years. This store is the “first” store that started the whole chain 42 years ago. It all started in downtown Naperville. Those of you that have been around for a while you would remember the 2 floors of fun. About 19 years ago we had to move out of downtown Naperville and we found the current space that is here on Rickert. Then about 6 or 7 years ago (time goes by too quickly lately so I am not sure) we expanded when Nancy’s Pizza moved out. Now we are almost twice the store. I am going to tell you why the Naperville store is one of the shining gems in our treasure chest of comic stores.
The first thing that is great about the Naperville store is the back issues. If you have read any of my blog entries, you would know that I am a fanatic for back issues. Since we have all this room we can put out more boxes of back issues. We have two types the regular boxes and the collector boxes. The regular boxes are Marvel, DC and Independent comics that are usually more of the current to the last 20 years. The collector comics are usually the older comics from the 60s and 70s with a small dabbling of 40s and 50s. They are all in alphabetical and numerical order (we try to fix them as much as possible) for easy perusing. The regular comics are split between the 2 major comic companies and the independent comics are all mixed together. The collector comics are mixed together Marvel and DC yet there are some special categories. At the end we made dividers for horror, romance, war and westerns. With all this room, Naperville has a lot of boxes to go through.
With talking about all the room, it gives me opportunities to make displays. I personally love making back issue displays. Sadly when I was in St. Charles, we did not have the room to do the displays I wanted to. Yet even before the expansion, Naperville had spots where you could do a decent displays. Now with the expansion we have rolling racks (which the need for them will be explained later) to make all sorts different displays. Again, if you have read any of my previous blog entries, you would realize that I love making them. The great thing about the store as well if the high ceilings so that I can display books throughout the store. Each section has minor and major key issues displayed above the new comics.
The other major thing that sets Naperville apart from the rest of the store is Magic the Gathering. All our stores carry the card game but we go to another level. The chain has been carrying the card game since its inception yet never did anything in the way tournaments. When I came to manage the store, the Magic staff asked if we could start Friday Night Magic. I said sure and the Magic end of the store started to grow. I do not miss the days of pre-expansion when Dawn and I had to move 50 to 100 long boxes to make room for the tables for the people to play at. Now luckily I have racks on wheels to move to set up for Magic. Peepaw here is a little too old to be moving that many boxes anymore. Now we have a decent sized Magic singles and sealed product area for those customers. We also have tournaments on Thursday and Friday. It is quite the community that has been built over the years.
One other place that grew because of the expansion is our All Ages section. Before it was a small corner in the front of the store. Now it is at least three times as big as it was. I love have a bigger All Ages section because comics are a great way to get kids reading. More companies are putting out product for those age groups so a bigger section helps. Yes, I also love the bigger section so that I can put out more kids back issues. I can never have enough Archie and Richie Richie Rich back issues.
Those are the areas that sets Naperville apart from the other stores. I still carry toys and action figures. Graphic novels and trade paperbacks are still here like the other stores. The rest of the stores do great jobs with the space they have. I just have a little more space than they do. I will say that this store is never perfect. It always can be better. I guess I have a background program in the back of my mind thinking of ways to change things or move things. That being said, I am pretty proud of what my employees and I have done and will do to the store. If you like what we do or have done, please feel free to leave a Google review. The powers that be read those reviews and it shows that we are doing a good job.
Again, thank you for reading my ramblings and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
I bid thee toodles
~Mike
Visit Graham Crackers Comics Naperville!
1271 Rickert Drive, Naperville, IL 60540
Monday-Thursday: 11am – 7pm
Friday: 11am- 10pm
Saturday: 10am – 6pm
Sunday: Noon – 5pm