If you have read more than 2 posts here, you probably know that I have 2 daughters who love comics, and that I happily take them with me to shops and conventions anytime I am able. Today I took my oldest (15yo) to a comic shop near my parents house that looks good, has a nice selection, and an owner that is sort of quiet, but when directly addressed has seemed pretty decent. I am not suggesting he is anything but decent, but here is some stuff that leaped out at me in my visit today.
Tarot is on the shelf... the main wall... sort of at toddler level. If I had a store, and could not avoid having that comic in it... I might keep it behind the counter, or higher up on a wall, or maybe bagged with the word adult on it. I realize it is printed with the words 'Mature Readers', but still, that isn't enough in my opinion.I'm not sure if the owner was just listening to something, or if he was watching something on the monitor in front of him, but it was playing loudly enough to be heard throughout the store. There was probably ten minutes of Sam Kinison routine about hating rap music that feature a good bit of profanity and er... graphic sexual language. It was just the two of us in the store at the time, and my oldest can handle language just fine, so I didn't say anything. It was still inappropriate, even if it was just random adults in the store. I am not offended by the language myself, but that isn't the point either.
When I got to the counter to pay, the guy was asleep. It wasn't a deep sleep, and my putting my comics on the counter woke him up. He's a nice guy, I just wish more stores were mindful and respectful of customers. Had my 9 year old been there, I would have been bothered by the language, but had she been there, it might not have been on. At some point while we were there, two or three other groups of people came in. The kind of cool part was that all of them were parents with young teen girls! Seeing that, makes me wonder if maybe the owner was just really tired and not paying attention to what was on when we went in. I paid attention to what was being played the whole time, and by the time others came in, it was fairly clean comedy.
I just don't know if there is ever a time that a retail store should think it's a good idea to have something playing that features the phrase 'suck my dick' about a hundred times. (Maybe unless it's a porn shop, which probably wouldn't make me feel obliged to post about it.)
Maybe this was just an isolated thing. It still bugs me a bit.
