Retail is a syndicated comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate. It was authored and illustrated by Norm Feuti. It ran in newspapers from 2006 to 2020, and throughout its run gained quickly in popularity following articles in The New York Times and TIME Magazine. In January 2020, Feuti announced that he planned to end the strip in order to focus on his career as a children's book author. The last strip was published on February 23, 2020.
Setting The strip is set in store #4743 of a fictional department store chain called "Grumbel's."Locally drawn comic strip 'Retail' about to hit retailers nationwide The Sun Chronicle 12 October 2012Secret shopper Comics Kingdom 15 April 2019] Grumbel's provides a wide array of goods; customers have been shown shopping for anything from garden equipment and electronics to clothing and housewares. Given the wide variety of products available through Grumbel's it more closely resembles a Sears than other types of retail stores. However, the name Grumbel's is a parody of real life department store Gimbels, which closed in 1987. It also suggests the word "grumble."
Besides being in a generic, suburban mall the location of Grumbel's was initially kept ambiguous. Grumbel's has been operating at least since the mid-1900s and was founded by the fictional J.P. Grumbel, as seen in one of the comic strips. January 10, 2010, it was revealed that this Grumbel's store is located in New England.
Following years of declining sales under incompetent senior executive management, Grumbels filed for bankruptcy in January 2020, leading to the events at the end the strip.
Cast
Marla Garrison (née Masters) First appearance: January 1, 2006
Marla, a brunette woman in her late 30s, is originally Grumbel's assistant manager, later store manager, and the main character of the strip. She is good at her job and cited as a reasonable manager, but is often discouraged when the bureaucratic rules set by the corporate office work against the store's stated goal of customer service. While the daily strips' plots often deal with her discouragement, Marla maintains an optimistic attitude and often mentions a dream of opening her own small store or boutique. She vents her frustration by writing a retail manifesto railing against the idiocies of customers and management, which at last mention had grown to 200 pages. She made plans to start her own retail business, but was determined to keep this secret at work for fear of being fired by the management. However, Marla put this ambition on hiatus to support her young daughter and family.
Marla and her fiancé Scott were married in June 2011. Their first child, a daughter named Fiona Jane Garrison was born on April 9, 2012. Marla was promoted to store manager in March 2012 after Stuart accepted a promotion to district manager.
At the end of the strip, Marla is seen accepting a position as an office manager for a company named Myers-Peterson. With that secure, Marla called over Stuart to tender her immediate resignation with a recommendation that Crystal replace her for the liquidation. Marla also informed Stuart that she had already advised Crystal about appropriate pay demands and that most of the store staff had already resigned.
Cooper Costello First appearance: January 1, 2006
Cooper is an Italian-American man who works in Grumbel's stockroom and is the store's clown. His attitude made him a regular antagonist to Stuart while Stuart was store manager, and later to Josh when Josh was promoted to assistant manager. He is constantly frustrated by bad policies and customers, and regularly lashes out at the store by goofing off during his work hours and playing practical jokes. He is often the one most directly affected by retail management policies such as the lack of employer health-care programs and the erratic amount of part-time hours. He was nearly fired as a cost-cutting measure but was able to stay on when Lunker offered to cut his hours in half. To make ends meet, he worked part-time (in addition to Grumbel's) as an attendant at a gas station mini-mart, although he later left this second position. In July 2013, Cooper is promoted to stockroom supervisor, a position that comes with full-time hours, a raised salary, and benefits. As part of his new duties, Cooper does initial interviews for a new stockroom employee.
In 2018, Cooper is assigned as acting store manager of the closing South Heights Grumbels store by Stuart, choosing him only because Marla refused to oversee that store on top of her own without her salary being doubled in the interim and then she recommended Cooper instead. Considering that the closest other qualified manager lives 73 miles away, Stuart has no other choice.Stuart is forced to accept Cooper Retailcomics.com 3 March 2018 Despite the frustrations of Grumbels' usual corporate incompetence, Cooper finds this temporary responsibility a good experience considering that he is not only advancing his career, but he also does not have to concern himself in this situation with sustaining the operation with profit margins in mind. The store closed on June 28, and Cooper was shocked to receive Stuart's congratulations for a job well done, complete with a promise to provide the closing cash bonus as previously negotiated.
Cooper has built a small lounge on the roof of the Grumbel's out of old patio furniture dubbed "Cooper's Lounge" and also spends time constructing "Box Art" out of empty cardboard boxes. Some examples of his art include robots, castles, mazes and even a "Great Wall of Boxes." He's a fan of science fiction and geek culture, and often wears Halloween costumes based on obscure movie, TV or comic book characters that other staff members don't recognize, much to Cooper's frustration. Cooper harbored a crush on Val for years before finally asking her on a date in February 2011. They got along far better than either of them expected, and they remained in a romantic relationship. On 3 August 2018 Cooper proposes to Val having bought a ring from the bonus received for supervising the store closure.Cooper proposes to Val retailcomics.com 3 August 2018 With that, they were later quietly married at a courtroom.
At the end of the strip, Cooper accepted a new job as an entry-level warehouse worker, thanks to a lead provided by an employee he supervised during the store closure. Despite being an entry-level position, the new job paid almost twice his Grumbel's salary. This allowed his wife Val to stay at home and focus on her novel rather than looking for a new job.
Val Costello (née Williams) First appearance: January 1, 2006
Val Williams is an African-American department supervisor in her mid-30s and good friend of Marla. She is also a published creative writer and would eventually like to quit working at Grumbel's and write full-time. In Halloween 2008, a week of strips focused on a short story she had written. In October 2011, it is revealed that she has had limited success with her writing. She keeps her job a secret to her family, who pay for her living expenses so long as they believe she is an accomplished writer. In 2012, Val finally admitted to her father that her writing career was not as successful as she was letting on, and that she had only recently accepted a blogging position for a gardening magazine. In response, her father stopped paying her way, and Val moved to a small but well-maintained studio apartment. Soon after, she and Cooper moved in together and eventually eloped.
In January 2020, Val announced that she intended to write a novel that year. Following the announcement of Grumbels' upcoming bankruptcy at the end of the strip, Val decided to take a break from wage employment to focus on her novel-writing goal, supported by her husband Cooper's increased salary.
Stuart Suchet First appearance: January 1, 2006
Stuart Suchet (his last name is pronounced "soo-shay", like the British newsreader John Suchet or the actor David Suchet) is originally the store manager, and is later promoted to district manager. Often viewed by his employees as an incompetent and arrogant tyrant, he is a "corporate yes man" who implements any instructions sent from the corporate office -- no matter how absurd or ill-considered -- without question. He has a working relationship with Marla (which has become more strained as the strip has progressed), and relied heavily on her to complete his managerial work and keep the employees' morale up while he was store manager. He also has an even more tense relationship with Cooper who treats him in open contempt, often calling him "Zucchini Head."
Stuart further demonstrated his incompetence and arrogance in July 2009 when, following her vacation, he threatened to replace Marla with Josh as assistant manager. He even went so far as to have both Josh and Marla interview for the position, although Josh declined and left him in a tough spot. Stuart accepted a promotion to district manager in February 2012, and began the position after Marla returned from her maternity leave, which proved a delicate matter after he was foolish enough to frame that legally entitled right as "vacation" to Marla's face to her outrage. Although he initially wished to give his store manager position to Josh, the regional manager persuaded him to give it to Marla. Much to Marla's chagrin, his office is located in his old store.
At the end of the strip, Stuart was frustrated and astounded that Marla would quit on him with no notice.
Lunker First appearance: April 9, 2007 (first mentioned) April 11, 2007 (first full appearance)
Lunker is Cooper's co-worker in the Grumbel's stockroom. His real name is Mel and, according to Cooper, he is "bald, about 7 feet tall, all around huge and only slightly more articulate than the Hulk." Cooper took immediate liking to Lunker, as he has "chaos potential." Lunker has shown brief moments of unexpected intelligence or insight, often during downtime when Cooper is in one of his melodramatic moods. He is very loyal towards Cooper going so far as to stand up for him when Cooper was going to be fired as a cost-saving measure, offering to personally cut his hours so Cooper could stay on.
Lunker and Crystal were friends in middle school and lived in the same apartment complex. They had not seen each other for many years until meeting again when Crystal became assistant manager at Grumbels. Lunker did not take on his nickname until after he and Crystal lost touch.
A recurring gag in the strip is to show Lunker singing and dancing when nobody is watching, only to be interrupted by a surprised coworker who is intimidated into silence by a threat from Lunker.
At the end of the strip, Lunker offered to stay on at Grumbels during the bankruptcy liquidation to support the assistant manager and his childhood friend Crystal, who was expecting to be promoted to manager following Marla's upcoming departure.
District Managers In February 2012, Stuart accepted a promotion from store manager to district manager and he remained in that position until the end of the strip. Before that happened, the strip featured a series of characters in the district manager role:
Jerry Deco Jerry was initially the district manager in the strip, who was even more obsessed with rules than Stuart. He is a source of great frustration for Marla, who he constantly calls "Darla". While his demeanor may reflect problems in his personal life (as revealed in a November 2007 story arc where he was in a middle of a divorce), the way he took it out on the employees of the stores in his district earned him little (if any) sympathy.
Jerry was written out in May 2008 when he was promoted to a regional position. Much to Marla's horror, he was brought back in May 2009 when Gary was fired. Jerry left Grumbel's in May 2012, naming Stuart as his successor.
Connie