Wolf Gnards

Not long ago, Wolf Gnards announced a Boycott of Borders Bookstores because of their lack of comic book support. Well, Borders have heard our case and have given answers back. Micha Hershman, Borders Category Director – Fiction, Genre Fiction, Graphic Novels, sent a response to Wolf Gnards answering some of the issues I pointed out.

For the sake of posterity I present Micha’s letter:

Hi J. Douglas,

My name is Micha Hershman and I am the Graphic Novels category director for Borders. I just read your blog post titled “Boycott of Borders Bookstore.” While I understand your passion for Graphic Novels and Comics, the information that you are passing along to others is inaccurate. I want to set the record straight.

We are not removing the Graphic Novel category from our stores, period. We’re fans, too, and we want every customer to have the same great experience browsing the shelves that we want for ourselves. In fact, we are giving more attention than ever to the category, including a new in-store presentation of our graphic novels selection that will be rolling out in the coming weeks. I don’t know which of our locations you visited last weekend, but our stores are preparing to change the way they display graphic novels, and that store could have been preparing to make the transition with new displays and signage, so things could have been in a bit of a jumble.

Second, we have not stopped selling comic books. We continue to offer a selection of comics in the vast majority of our Borders locations – and we have found that the selection we offer is by and large commensurate with customer demand.

Borders did have a buy-one-and-get-a-second-graphic-novel-for-half-price sale this past January. However, we held this sale not to “burn through inventory” as you suggest, but rather to showcase our great selection of titles, offer a good deal in a tough economy and give customers the opportunity to enrich their collections.

Borders is a long standing leader in the Graphic Novel category – ask any publisher. We offer a selection of titles that exceeds what other national retailers and many independents carry. Our Merchandising team members are world-class professionals and fans who spend every minute of their workday being geeked about the category and looking for new ways to serve the needs of our customers.

I hope that you will publicly recall your suggestion to boycott Borders.

Sincerely,

Micha Hershman

Category Director – Fiction, Genre Fiction, Graphic Novels

My Reaction:

Very cool. This right here demonstrates the power of the blog. I have a new found respect for Borders. They actually heard my voice and deemed it something to respond to. However, the fact that they responded speaks volumes. Non-issues do not need to be addressed, issues do.

I think there was some nice spin here, but until I see an actual return of graphic novels, I have to remain skeptical. It was not a matter of a section being in disarray, but no section at all. If you are simply changing displays, why remove the entire section entirely before the change? Why paint over signage that says “Graphic Novels?” Seems like a waist of paint to me.

Cute throwing in the economy though. As if at a board meeting someone said, “These are tough economic times for geeks, we should really do something for them.” Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. We know how sales work. There’s overstock and stores need to unload that overstock. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a humanitarian move. And it’s pretty natural to assume they’re “burning through stock” if they don’t restock with new material.

Don’t listen to me though, I’m just an angry nerd. Make up your own mind and look at the Borders near you. If they’ve removed graphic novels and there appears to be no return then perhaps it’s time to take up the protest. However, if Borders is filled to the brim with comic books, then buy, buy, buy.