Star Clipper

I have a confession. It's been a really long time since I've paid the marked price for a book. (Does anyone know the technical name for that?) It's been a long time since I've even paid the full Amazon price for a book. When my sister Lilly was in town and we were clothes shopping in the Loop, and I remembered I needed to get a couple books for my graphic novel book club, I thought I'd stop into Star Clipper. This is a really long way of saying that my only complaint about the store was the prices, which were the ones marked on the books. And I shouldn't be upset about this, really, but because I'm not used to paying it, I am anyway.

I was really surprised by Star Clipper's store interior. When I'd seen it from the outside, it always seemed like there were lots of comics and kitschy novelty items, so I assumed the store contained about half and half. Not so much. It's pretty sparse inside, and very much focused on comics and graphic novels. Books were organized alphabetically by title, and most things were pretty easy to find. An employee also asked me if I needed help, which was nice.

I don't visit that many comic shops, mostly because they're usually so much cheaper to buy online, or even better, requested from the library. However, I hear horror stories from friends about incredibly awkward (at best) or rude experiences in stores, mostly based on gender. I didn't get any of that at Star Clipper, and even though I was buy two stereotypically "intro" graphic novels (Fables and Y: The Last Man), I never felt like I was looked down on as a "less serious" graphic novel fan. In fact, my cashier was really enthusiastic about my purchases, and seemed genuinely interested in whether or not I would like them. So far, customer service = A+.

So, as long as I have disposable income, I will certainly be a loyal Star Clipper customer, and I'll definitely recommend it to others I know. Like I said, I'm not a huge comic/graphic novel fan, so I can't speak as much to how good their selection is, but I found everything I was looking for easily (and there were some more obscure things than the ones I mentioned above).