I agree that yelling at him won’t accomplish anything, but in all fairness, you’re not sinking to a bigot’s level by calling them a bigot. You can only do that by being a bigot yourself.
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Legally he can’t say those things in the workplace though. If he’s making comments about women’s bodies, he should be fired. Unless he’s the owner, then you should never go back.
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No one should be subjected to that kind of treatment. (Gender, race, religion, orientation, national origin, etc)
It depends on your personality. I don’t have a problem getting in people’s faces. Some people feel comfortable with that, others don’t. If you are the former:
If you have a comics friend group that will side with you. You could get a set of customers that are willing to walk in and lay down your terms of business. “Either you treat people equally and with respect and common curtesy. Or if you don’t this group of people will pull their business away from you. This is a zero tolerance policy from this customer base.” This can be a slap in the face to the owner. If you have a group of people that are collectively spending $1000 in that shop a month. It might wake them up.
If that’s not your style, go the mail order or local bookstore route.
Certainly blast the 
on all forms of social media and review sites like yelp.
A couple of other options to consider. After the covid restrictions are lifted, if you have a group, literally make yourself picket signs and/or flyers and run your own protest outside his shop. Contact the local news station or newspaper about this behavior. Raise the visibility of the issue.
Also, contact the other two shops and see what you can do to help them, if possible. Again, if you have a group, asking if moving their patronage to one of the other two shops is viable to them. Do a “go fund me” for the shop. There is a group of writers and artists that are raising money for comic shops.(the name of the organization escapes me at the moment, perhaps on of the other members knows) Contact them and tell them your story (this works especially well if there are more than one of you. It establishes a pattern). Try to get them to focus relief efforts in your city towards one of the other two shops, rather than the shop of this .
It is worth pointing out that any business that operates on slim margins, could be seriously impacted by consumer actions. Positively in trying to figure out what actions you can take to help one of the two shops likely to close. Or through flyer distribution, letting other people know what other options are out there. If you we’re treated this way, their are probably many more that have received the same treatment and just “held their nose” and continued to do business with this .
Another support system you could try contacting, is NOW (National Organization of Women) They may already have a response team to help. Depending on what city you are in there may be a local chapter, city or county level, virtually every NOW organization has a state chapter.
Everybody is different. There is no right or wrong answer for you. You have options. Which one is right for you is a determination only you can make.
Some folks walk away, others take actions to stick it to people and extract a bit of payback. Neither is wrong. It depends on the person.
Whatever path you choose to take, I wish you the best, and remember that you have a support system here on DCU.
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Don’t give that guy the satisfaction. There are so many ways to get into comics that he shouldn’t even make your top 5. I’ve seen a bunch of comments telling you various pieces of advice about dealing with him.
My advice: Don’t deal with him at all. Find another way to get comics. It might take research, but you can do it!
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But, I’m pretty sure, a complaint on that would have to come from an employee. And it is difficult to prove. Lots of documentation required.
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True.
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I’ve experienced that kind of behavior with employees often enough to brace myself when entering smaller, unfamiliar shops, but never with an owner. That’s not just horrible, it’s phenomenally stupid. Like DeSade said, any business operating on thin margins can be seriously impacted by consumer actions.
If I were you, since it’s been about two years since you’ve personally experienced it, I’d probably stop in to test the climate. Mostly out of curiosity, in case there has been a change of ownership (or, you never know if another patron was less patient than you and your friends — the owner may have been cowed since then if he pulled those stunts with the wrong customer.).
I’m not trying to encourage patronage of bad shops; I just know what it’s like to have very limited options, and sadly, online shopping never replaces that feel of going into a bookstore.
Worst comes to worst, if he’s still there and being as big an a$$hat as ever, you have fresh grievances to bring to social media, local news sources, and whatever additional channels you choose to inform the public of what’s going on.
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I can only speak to my experience, but it is my observation from back in the day that comic and music store people can be snobbish to anyone that doesn’t match their idea of what is “cool”. That is not universally the case, of course (shout out to Heroes Are Here). They usually have their little group that they hang out with and are dismissive of outsiders. That said, I am guessing that your particular situation is sexist more than anything else. I could play armchair psychiatrist and speculate about his personal success with dating, but I will just suffice it to say that comic culture has its fair share of poor attitudes about women. I am sorry that you encountered this, and I have no idea if you have better options where you are. I personally switched to digital a long time ago (just no room to keep going), and that is a good option if you don’t mind reading on an electronic device.
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If you don’t like how the person conducts business, do not be a patron. I say you made a good choice. Plus there are way too many cost effective ways to enjoy comics. If you love collected editions, check out In Stock Trades and Cheap Graphic Novels. Single issues can be tougher but you still have Comixology if you wanna go digital or Midtown Comics and Things From Another World that send physical comics.
It never makes sense to turn away potential customers so the person is a big derp.
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This. I wasn’t sure how to phrase it in my reply, but this is, in my opinion, the easiest option with the best results.
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I think if you were comfortable going back, you probably wouldn’t be asking us our thoughts. There is zero need to return when there are other options and I, myself, hope you never put a dime in that fool’s pockets.
Besides, ordering online often leads to better discounts, so there’s possibly an extra bonus there for you. Don’t worry about not supporting “the industry” when that man shouldn’t even be a part of it.
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Do you have bookstores that sale comics? There are bookstores that will order you comics if there are no other comic shops around you. Personally, I do not believe supporting a business that objectives women to entertain a bunch of goons should not be supported. If he is suck an ass that he does that to any human being. So check out local bookstores, they usually are great about ordering what you need. I dont have comic stores around her and go through my bookstores. Hope that helps!
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Find another shop in a nearby town and see if they have a comiXology storefront. They at least get something from those sales.
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Snob and a half, man. I’d see if there is a regional shop with low cost shipping. I buy online form a LCS that is far away, but I like them. It’s still independent, but it’s cheap enough to be about the same as buying in store. Sometimes online is the option. I wouldn’t buy from the guy you’re describing.
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That is awful, definitely stay away from there. Hopefully either another comics shop opens up at some point in the area or there is a nearby bookstore that sells comics. That type of shop does not deserve to be supported for the sake of the industry as a whole.
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Yeah. We need to take back this hobby from these people IMO. At the risk of sounding cheesy,that kind of behavior to me feels like the proprietor doesn’t actually READ the books. That’s not the kind of behavior Superman would endorse
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Thanks all! I guess I was just trying to see if y’all thought I’d be missing out on the community aspect of I didn’t have a shop to go to. I think community is a huge part of the appeal and experience of the comic industry, and while I feel like this is a great addition to that, I didn’t know if it would be enough. It’s also a huge relief because I feel a little less guilty about not shopping at a store. This store is one of a “chain” of comic shops within my region, and I heard rumors that it may have a new location owner in the franchise location in this two years. I think I will pop in- see if he’s still there and if so, just stick to online.
Thanks so much!
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Glad to hear! I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the other guy is long gone! 
And if he’s not and gives you trouble, don’t give him a penny and report him to whatever franchise it is
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Best of luck. Hopefully that is long gone.
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To echo others, find another shop PRONTO.
Or order online (physical or digitally).
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