"Alternate Reality" (pre-Incorporation) first opened it's doors in Chicago's "Mt.Greenwood" neighborhood in August of 1994 at our old 107th and Pulaski location, however our roots stretch back to the late 1970's with the old "Comicbook Emporium". Since first opening we have strived to give our customers the best product selection and best prices of any other store in Chicago. Now that we're on the web that commitment continues to all our customers across the World Wide Web!  

      You can also ADVANCE ORDER items from this months previews catalog through us at a substancial discount off the cover price. We call it our "Previews Sale-O-Rama" and you'll find discounts up to 40% off the SRP in some cases.
   

      We first opened "Alternate Reality" in 1994 with our cornerstone discount of "15% Off All New Comics, Everyday for Everyone!" It and many other discounts and sales (Founder's Day Sales, 1st Day Sale, Sale-O-Rama and others) have continued down to today. The idea of committing a "new" comic book store to daily-discounting and conducting ongoing sales/specials came about for two reasons:
 

      First it seemed like a good marketing tool, which no other Chicagoland store was even contemplating at that time. As many may remember, 1994 was the tail end of the "Speculator Boom" of the late 80's/early 90's. The general attitude among brick & mortar Chicago comic retailers was: "Why discount something our customers can't get enough of?" My attitude was: why do some people shop at Wal-Mart instead of Target or Sears? All three stores carry essentially the same merchandise, and each has (arguably) the same ambiance. Wal-Mart beats the rest because of its value; it sells for less. So I reasoned if you make it cheaper, they will come!
 

      Secondly, daily discounting was a good way to immediately establish Alternate Reality and separate it from the pack of other stores that were out there at the time. Again, this was the early ninties and there was no shortage of competition for a "new" store. In fact within a ten mile radius of our first location you could find over 15 comic and card shops at that time (a number that has shrunk considerably since then). The only thing that separated these stores from one another was their size and the face behind the counter. So to stand out I established our "15% OFF Discount" policy from the start.  Many thought it was a gimmick which I couldn't/wouldn't sustain past a few months or a year at most! Well it's ten years later and here we are, still going strong.
 

      "Alternate Reality" first set up shop in our original 800 square foot store at 10643 South Pulaski Road on Chicago's south-side in August 1994. We outgrew that space in a little over two years and in December of 1996 we moved into the heart of Chicago's "Mt.Greenwwod business district. Our current location: 3149 West 111th Street, was double the size of the Pulaski store (1600 sq. ft) and is situated at the intersection of 111th Street and Kedzie Avenue (one of Chicago's busiest!) Once again we outgrew this space and in the summer of 2000 we knocked down our east wall and expanded into adjacent storefront, doubling our size again to our current 3200 square feet!
 

      In the summer of 2003 we were ready to expand again, however this time expansion consisted of not of growth to the existing store but instead division into new entity. In August of that year we opened our second store at 1517 West Taylor Street in Chicago's historic "Little Italy" neighborhood. Our Taylor Street store was 1300 square feet and carried all of the same product lines and offered all of the same discounts as the parent Kedzie Street store. Unfortunately economic conditions (both on Taylor Street at the time and in the comic industry) caused us to close the Taylor Street store in the summer of 2005.

           It's been well over a decade since we first opened our 800 square foot Pulaski Road store. In fact in 2004 we celebrated a "Decade of Discounts" at both stores. We've grown and thrived over the years because of our customers. So if you're a regular at one of our brick and mortar locations, thank you for your patronage! If this is your first time meeting us, welcome! And if you find yourself in the Chicagoland area please stop by.