We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Leah Morrett a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Leah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
Most comic book stores are run by white, middle aged men and cater to that demographic. I grew up enjoying comics and going with my dad to pick up his weeklies, but stopped when I hit puberty and began feeling very unwelcome in these spaces. I believe that comics and nerd culture is for everyone, and I wanted to make a space that was fun, cute & colorful and unabashedly feminine. The way that I have designed and curated the shop has resonated with our community and customers. People come in and tell us how much they love the space. Not only are we a more feminine and aesthetically inclined shop, we are also curated specifically to the LGBTQ+ community and our customers and everyone who works at the shop (including myself) falls on that spectrum. There have been great strides in diversifying comics in the past years and we want to highlight that.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Sour Cherry Comics is a comic book store in the Mission, San Francisco that caters to women and the LGBTQ+ community. We host regular events every month as well as group art shows twice a year. We have sold thousands of dollars worth of art for our artists in the past 2 years. We specialize in carrying comics and books with an LGBTQ+ focus.
Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?
We also have a patreon that people can subscribe to! There are four tiers, starting at $8 and there are free books included in all of them.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
There’s a few reasons that I started this business. One is that I genuinely believe in the mission – I wanted to create a space for girls and LGBTQ+ community to explore nerd culture and comics which is very often a space that is hostile to these groups. I also was in a series of dead end jobs and needed an out. I had saved up quite a bit for a trip that was indefinitely postponed due to COVID and I was brainstorming. I thought why not give it a try, so I started researching. I spent my entire life working retail and customer service jobs and so I had skin in the game. I had taken some business classes at community college and I learned how to make a business plan and I started talking to some comic book store owners in the neighborhood, asking them detailed questions about the business and running a shop in the city. It’s more or less history from there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sourcherrycomics.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sourcherrycomics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sourcherrycomics/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sourcherrycomix