{"id":6357,"date":"2020-05-09T11:43:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T15:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnjcomics.com\/site\/?p=6357"},"modified":"2020-05-09T22:52:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-10T02:52:12","slug":"cnjcomics-reopens-on-may-12th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnjcomics.com\/site\/2020\/05\/cnjcomics-reopens-on-may-12th\/","title":{"rendered":"CNJComics Reopens on May 12th"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Well, we’re finally on ‘the other side’. CNJComics is set to reopen as per the Governor’s orders on Tuesday, May 12th!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We’ve got a lot of\nmeasure in place to keep both staff and customers safe, many of which we were\nalready doing before we were shuttered on March 23rd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve been closed\nup for seven weeks now, and while we’ve been doing well with Facebook Live\nSales and your ongoing orders, there’s nothing like selling stuff to people\nface to face. (or mask to mask for awhile.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s everything\nyou need to know about our reopening protocals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, we\nwill be compliant with all Mandatory standards for Govenor DeWine’s Responsible\nRestartOhio program, as well as some recommended Best Practices that his office\nhas suggested. (These protocols have also been cleared with the staff, and they\nare comfortible with them, which is a really important thing to know.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nutshell, it’s\nall about distancing, sanitizing and face coverings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For distancing we\nhave installed a barrier at check out, and we’ve learned the bigger the better.\nIt’s so big you hardly know it’s there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The staff will also be wearing face coverings, as required. We will not be mandating that customers wear one, but we do STRONGLY recommend it. To that end we will have disposable masks available if you feel you need one. For the at risk members of our community, those 65 and older or immunocompromised, we had a local seamstress make up Marvel masks that we will give you for free. We consider our older clientele to be our national treasures and they will be treated as such. (You know, like Carol.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here’s where you can order your own masks<\/a> from her is you like, though I think the Marvel fabric is a shop exclusive!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have put up\ndistance markers six feet apart in the shop to help you gauge your space from\nothers. Please be cool and respect other people’s space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We have established\nour max CoVid-19 occupancy as 15 plus staff. Please respect this if you’re\nasked to wait outside. We don’t think it will be a problem but it kind of\nremoves any event plans for the summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you enter the\nshop you will see a hand sanitizer station that looks just like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Please use it! We\nare restocking it with hand sanitizer made locally at the Western Reserve\nDistillers in Lakewood. They also sell vodka!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Employees will be\nsanitizing their hands regularly throughout the day, and we will also be wiping\ndown high traffic areas hourly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employees will do\nan assestment of themselves daily to determine if they are fit for duty. If\nthey’re sick, they stay home, period. (the balance between hung over and sick\nwill have to be determined.) Respectfully, this also applies to you. If you’re\nsick, stay home and we’ll figure out how to get your books to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will also\ncontinue to do curbside, just give us a call and we’ll bring your stuff out to,\nwell, the curb outside our shop. We will also ship once a week, and if you’re\nstill really freaked out about leaving the house we can deliver for free within\na five mile radius of the shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we open up on\nMay 12th we will be back to our normal operating hours with a few exceptions.\nThe Govenor’s office has recommended a deep cleaning once a week and that’s\nwhat we’re going to do. We will be closed on Monday’s for the forseable future\nto do that deep clean. (we will be open for curbside that day.) We will also be\nadding an hour on Thursdays. 11am to noon on Thursdays will be for our at risk\ncustomers only. (e.g. elderly and immunocompromised.) We won’t be checking ID’s\nbut respect this time period for the safety of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If for any reason\nwe have an employee with a confirmed case of CoVid-19 I will shut the store\ndown and bring an outside agency in to sanitize the shop, period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s it for the\nCo-Vid protocals, let’s talk about comic books! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s start out by\nsaying this. There has been alot of talk about different options for shipping\nand distribution of product from publishers. Our stance is this, we’re\n#waitingfordiamond <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rest assured that\nyou will get all the new comics that you requested, so trust us, we know what\nwe’re doing. We made decisons that are in the best interest of you, us, and the\nindustry in general. To us, Wednesday is new comic book day and it will\ncontinue to be so within our shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here’s what the\nforseable future looks like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 13th will be\nour first Wednesday in the shop, and while there will be no new product, we\nwill have some fun stuff on the table, including piles of great discounted\ngraphic novels and employee recommendations. Stuff to read man! Because of this\nwe will give 50% off back issues and 20% off statues, action figures and pop\nfuns from May 12th until May 19th. Take advantage of this, and please use this\nfree week to clear anything out of your file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 20th we will\nhave out first new comic book day! This will be a backlog of DC product as well\nas some small press publishers. This is the day Diamond is ready to ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 27th will see\nMarvel returning to the table, albeit with only five new comics. Marvel’s\nreturn to publshing will be very slow, with things only going back to normal by\nmid July. I find Marvel’s plans to be very respectful of the industry though. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s going to take\nawhile to get back to normal, just like every part of America, but we’ll be\nthere with you every step of the way, figuring out how to get your comic books\nto you. That’s the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what about my\nhome office and the Live Sales that have worked out so well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo art by John\nReis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll have one more\nbig one this Sunday, May 10th at 6pm to 8pm. Late Silver \/ Early Marvels which\nI love. 180 books. From there I’m sure the idea will live on in one form or\nanother. I love the idea of a newsroom where we make regular announcements\nabout the shop, as well as some education presentations, which was what a lot\nof the shows were about anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We will always\nfavor selling comics in person, that’s the part of the job that I love the\nmost, and it’s the part that builds community. We can never thank you enough\nfor joining in on them and helping to keep the shop afloat during this\nunprecedented time in history. It ain’t over yet, but we’re still here because\nyou saw value in what we do and decided to help out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We made up stickers\nwe’ll be giving out as a thank you, and we’re also happy to do a ‘sticker swap’\nwith local artists to help decorate out plexiglass screen. (art by @peabe)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The good news is we\ngot our PPP loan, which will likely be forgivable!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jim and Ben made the decision to keep working through all this and I can’t thank them enough. We did what America asked us to do, created a safe working environment and kept working. The PPP loan is to reimburse their salaries for the next eight weeks so we can get the shop up and running faster. The first thing I did was was to award them with a hazard pay check for $1,000 each as well as a medal of bravery from Star Wars a New Hope. We held a whole ceremony utilizing CoVid protocols that you can see on out Facebook page, and yes, even Chewbacca got his medal this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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