Recently I heard a story on NPR radio about The Little Comic Book Shop, a comic book store in Dearborn, MI, that hosts a regular Comic Jam, where enthusiasts (and customers) come to the store, enjoy light snacks and take turns writing their own comic strip, one square at a time. Listening to the story made me think what a great, creative store promotion so of course I wanted to share it with you as an idea for a promotion for your store. Below are some of my various iterations of the Comic Jam that may get your creative juices flowing as well.

Some of the ideas I thought of are:

Host an Open Book Night (take off of "open mic night"), where customers can share passages from their favorite books. Serve wine and cheese and even invite publishers to come to share their new titles.

Have a Recipe Jam where customers can share their favorite recipes or challenge each other to create recipes with a limited number of ingredients (an Iron Chef-style event).

Host a Fashion Jam. If your store features clothing you could have a Fashion Jam where customers use a specific collection to create outfits that you’ll feature in window displays. Have customers vote for their favorite outfits at the Fashion Jam and on your Facebook page.

Let me know if any of these ideas work for you and if you come up with any iterations of your own.