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Too much Manga on the shelves: Who's at fault? (Long)

(pointless ramble about customers and how they suck edited out)...I mean, look at my section. Now, imagine 3 of these shelves as inventory. Thats how much "inventory" I have just gathering dust in the back. Most are multiples of (title), (title), (title), and (title). I mean, who thought I would need 25 copies of (title) when the last volume only sold 7 units? And the entire series up until (Volume #) only sold on par at least 9 units?! And don't get me started on (This might be a confidential marketing strategy, edited out). They "promise" such things, yet never deliver. You know how many possible sales I could've made with (title) and (title) but never had the volumes to back them up due to their (censored)-ups? For my store, I could've pushed 75 units, which could've translated to (confidential marketing strategy? edited out) being sold. 75!! But the manga buyer is an idiot to even notice it.

And that doesn't include the titles that haven't sold period and are just gathering dust on the shelves. If I had it my way, i'd excise most of TOKYOPOP's OEL and Manwha stuff, because their not selling period. Theirs just too much titles for little space. TOKYOPOP seems to be concerned more on quantity rather than quality. Most of the stuff I want to get rid of or aren't selling are TOKYOPOP titles. Do I really need to stock (several Manhwa titles listed) when it shows I never sold any of them for almost a year? As of late, I have ZERO returns concerning Manga and Graphic Novels. Most of it is taking up space, so get them back to the warehouse and open up the room for titles that deserve the space!!

Speaking of which, I do have to give credit to Del Ray and DMP at least, because they have small quanitites, good titles, and haven't flooded me with inventory. Viz is a hit or miss. Sometimes I get the right ammounts, other times i'm wondering "where the hell is my stock?" The "Independents" are also a hit or miss. CMX, lousy editing aside, is a hit or miss.

*Me asked question*

...Yeah, well, the fault is with both of them. TOKYOPOP needs to pare down their selections (because frankly, 25% of them are pure BS anyway) and I hope our Manga buyer can get his head outta his ass and proeprly do his job right and cleanup my section and give me the stock I need to sell.

Interesting discussion, as I work in retail myself. The thing is sometimes we get in inventory that we don't even need, if that's what he's talking about. On top of that, when it doesn't sell, yes, it does get in the way and we have to find a way to get rid of it or wait for the recall, which is an awful long time. The "employers" don't seem to be looking at the inventory numbers, just what's popular or not and making a bad call.

Interesting. I work for a major national department store myself and personally I think that the buyers live in an ivory tower and do hard-core drugs. And when they leave their tower, they NEVER go to the smaller stores in the suburbs but only go to the high-end, rich-folks, flagship stores. Because half the clothing they buy, all you can do is shake your head...would YOU want YOUR grandma looking like a low-rent hooker? But, at least the company that I work for recognizes when stuff doesn't sell, they get rid of it quickly. Sometimes they just don't understand that what sells in New York WILL NOT sell in the suburbs of Southern California.

However, I still think Tokyopop is a big part of the problem by putting out so many different series in the first place (they seem to start 3-4 new series every month) when they are slowing down their long running series (SDK is over in Japan, but it will be 5 years before we see the end because TP is releasing it quarterly), supposedly because of a market flood and because book stores want more time to sell their stock.

The rant was really hard to understand. So this was some random guy saying that, a regular employee, or a higher up of this book store?

Interesting discussion I had with the "Manga expert" at the local bookstore today. His rant seems to be blaming equally his employers and the publishers themselves.

Note: parts of the discussion have been edited to protect the "experts" job and where he works.

I've recently started reading Ai Yori Aoshi and when I tried to pick up Volume 3 at my nearest Borders (which is an hour away from where I live by the by) it was in terrible shape! It had obviously been read through dozens of times! The spine was shaped like a U, pages were bent, spider creases every where and the cover was cuffed. No one in their right mind would pay for a book in that shape except at a used bookstore and even then they might think twice!

Found a better copy at Books-A-Million fortunately. Their chairs are over in the magazine section so people don't mangle the manga as much.

[i] TOKYOPOP needs to pare down their selections (because frankly, 25% of them are pure BS anyway)....