Comix Experience has started a graphic novel club in order to tackle the $80,000 more per year the owner says he needs to generate to weather the minimum wage increases underway in San Francisco.
The retailer, which has two locations in San Francisco, was inspired by an endangered science fiction bookstore called Borderlands, which sold sponsorships to customers earlier this year in order to survive.
Owner Brian Hibbs told Hoodline that he needs to sell more than 334 yearly memberships at a cost of $240 to the graphic novel club in order to afford the minimum wage increase. Monthly memberships which offer one graphic novel each month cost $25.
Under the new ordinance, minimum wage in San Francisco is set to rise to $12.25 on May 1 and will go up each year until it hits $15 per hour on July 1, 2018.
Hibbs is happy to have found a potential solution that reflects the company's core values.
"We don't sell comics merely to make money from them — we sell comics because we literally can't think of a better way to spend our days than communicating the boundless love we feel for great comics and their amazing creators," he wrote on the graphic novel club website. "Every member of our staff feels just the same way: We burn for comics, and we want to ignite your passion for the best that our medium has to offer!"