News Why Leeds Shop OK Comics Needs Your Help
Jared Myland, owner of OK Comics in the Thorntons Arcade urges comic fans to get down and support his store
News: Why Leeds Shop OK Comics Needs Your Help
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“People who have visited OK Comics over the last couple of weeks will have noticed scaffolding outside our shop. Thorntons Arcade, just off Briggate in the middle of Leeds, is being renovated.
“The work was due to start in February when it would have least effect on the businesses. It was scheduled to last for six weeks in total. The work was to be carried out in three stages, two weeks per stage, this hasn’t happened.
“The ongoing work, the presence of scaffolding, workmen, dust and noise has had a massive negative effect on the amount of people visiting Thorntons Arcade.
“OK Comics has never been about making money. It’s important that the bills get paid, staff get wages, and that stock suppliers are paid. But it’s not a high profit venture. It’s about comics, and the people who read them.
“There is a bare minimum the shop needs to take to continue trading.
“The reduction of income because of the renovation work has, in one short month, damaged OK Comics, and other shops and businesses in Thorntons Arcade. It’s threatened our ongoing existence.
“Our regular customers have been great. And I’m sure that will continue. They’ve been enduring the restricted conditions to continue buying comics and graphic novels from us. But we’ve lost pretty much all our passing trade and all our casual browsing customers. New customers have dried up almost completely.
“The whole point of OK Comics is to get new people reading comics. Trading in Thorntons Arcade, a busy thoroughfare, in the city centre, is usually fantastic. But at the moment we may as well be out in the middle of nowhere.
“So. What to do? I considered keeping it to myself, muddling through and hoping for the best. But then I thought that perhaps I should let a few of our regulars know, urge them to spend a bit more in the hope of keeping us going until the work is complete. So I put a brief, but frank, message on our website. As an afterthought, I linked to it from our Facebook and Twitter pages.
“Then I went home and went to bed.
“The following morning the internet seemed to buzz with news articles, links, tweets and retweets, all about saving OK Comics. The phone started to ring, email orders started to arrive. When Jonathan Ross tweeted about it, to his thousands of followers, things really started to pick up. The next couple of days were pretty manic with loads of new people visiting the shop, people I hadn’t seen for years, and tons of regulars. A fantastic burst, to be sure, but unfortunately two or three great days nowhere near make up for a month of tumbleweed.
“Thorntons Arcade’s management company have recently notified us that the initial six week job will now run to mid August, half the way through the summer school holidays, our busiest time of the year.
“The decision to carry out the renovation work now, in the height of summer, in the middle of a recession, is sure to put us out of business. Or at least it would, if not for the continued ongoing support from our wonderful, dedicated regular customers.”
A spokesperson for Lambert Smith Hampton, which is responsible for the maintenance of the arcade, told the Guardian Leeds site that the long-term benefits of the work outweighed the downside of the scaffold being in place for a few weeks. He said: “The idea behind the works is to lift the appearance and increase footfall. This will enable the arcade to better promote the array of niche retailers, capitalise on it’s historical appeal, and compete with the neighbouring retail offer, both planned and proposed (Trinity Leeds, Harewood Quarter etc.)
“The works could not be undertaken until the required funding was in place and in May 2010 LSH final payments were received enabling the works to progress and the various consents were subsequently applied for.
“Notification was issued to all unit owners as interested parties, with a request, where relevant, that landlords notify any tenants. LSH rely on landlords as the responsible party to make tenants aware of anything that may affect them, unfortunately it transpires that a small number of tenants were not made aware and LSH have since repeated their request for landlords to keep tenants appraised. LSH are this week issuing copy updates directly to each shop.
“The works have been planned to minimise disruption to businesses and temporary banners have been erected at both ends of the arcade confirming that businesses remain open for trade as usual.
“LSH appreciate that the scaffold presents a visual distraction from the usual appearance of the Arcade, however, we are in no doubt that the long-term benefits of the works conclusively outweighs the downside of the scaffold being in place for a few weeks.
“The works remain on schedule for completion within the original planned timescale and we continue to work with traders to address any problem areas as well as providing updates to the unit owners as to progress.”
OK Comics, 19 Thorntons Arcade, LS1 6LQ, 0113 246 9366, www.okcomics.co.uk, www.twitter.com/OKComics, www.facebook.com/OK-Comics
Posted on Thursday 22nd July 2010
TG
OK Comics
19 Thorntons Arcade, Briggate, Leeds, LS1 6LQ
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Comment by Mark Johnson
Posted on Thu 22nd Jul 10 2:36 pm
I would love to see how long it takes the ‘long term benefit’ of a lick of paint and some scraped off pigeon crap (which should be cleaned off regularly, not every few years) to make up for the short-term damage the work is doing. Such a poorly timed, badly managed bit of work.
It’s really heartening to see how much the Leeds community and the comics community have rallied around the shop since word got out about it’s problems, though! It’s great to see how much people care.
