Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Cliff Biggers Comic Store, coronavirus, coronavirus comics, pandemic

Cliff Biggers On How He Will Be Looking After His Comic Store Employees, During Coronavirus Pandemic

Published Mon, 16 Mar 2020 13:00:48 -0500

Last updated Fri, 20 Mar 2020 17:24:03 -0500

Cliff Biggers is one of the most influential comic book retailers in the direct market. And he wanted to share with us what he is telling his staff about Covid-19 and his comic store, Dr. No's Comics & Games SuperStore, in Marietta, Georgia.

Every one of us is understandably concerned about Covid-19 and how it might affect us in the next few weeks.

First off, the health and wellbeing of each of you is vitally important to me. I want to work with you to implement plans that will make you feel as safe and secure as possible in doing your job. We are talking about plans whereby, if the customer prefers, we customers can email in pull lists and let us know when they're in the parking lot and we will run books out to their car, get their payment, come into the store and process it, and take the receipt back to them. We are also evaluating plans to mail books to customers who are reluctant to come into the store over the next few weeks.

I am doing everything within my power to make sure the store has the necessary supplies for your safety. Unfortunately, I have no other sources for hand sanitizer, etc, then you do. I am getting up at 7am to go to each grocery store in the area in search of supplies that we need. It is more crucial than ever that I know what we're running low on ahead of time. Day-before and day-of notices will not work in our current situation.

So far, we have not seen a significant financial impact from this, but we know that it could happen. I am concerned about each of you and your financial well-being. We will begin evaluating necessary projects that can be implemented, from refinishing the game-side floors to reorganizing shelves to (potentially) preparing a list of in-stock back issues (if Izzy feels that is beneficial). My goal is to have projects that will allow us to continue to offer our the hours and income you need to cover your own financial obligations.

If this goes on for a prolonged period of time, we will (if necessary) "bank" hours. That is, I will pay you for hours that you cannot work currently, and we will gradually find a way to work those hours into your schedule once things return to normal. I am personally committed to making sure that this is not financially devastating for any of you.

We are aware that potential problems could have major effects on our business. A shutdown of shipping, printing, or distribution due to Covid-19 infection could result in no new product for a while.

I respect your judgment in deciding if you feel that we need to ask a customer to leave the store based on evidence of health or behavior.

(Our laser temperature gun, which we typically use to check AC vent temps, etc, can be used to check body temperature. A forehead laser reading will be 4° to 4.4° lower than actual body temperature, so if you choose to use it, you can typically expect to see readings of 94° 5o 94.6°. Temperatures readings in excess of 95.4° would typically fall in the "fever" category. If you have any high readings, check others and make sure that there has not been a calibration error.)

The store is important to me. Each of you is more important to me.

Cliff tells Bleeding Cool "this is a frightening time for a lot of people. My staff doesn't need to worry how they are going to pay their own expenses. If we are lucky, we'll make up in the future anything we lose now. If we don't, I consider an investment in my employees' security to be a worthwhile expense."

Here's an image from the front of store.