CSotD: Busted!
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The current story arc in "Retail" has been so tightly paced that, having not featured it at the start, I've been loathe to suggest dropping in midway. However, I think it's worth doing, and you could even go back to the 15th and start at the beginning.
The arc is about Marla taking a day off from Grumbels to go to a trade show in preparation for quitting her job and opening her own store. And, yes, the fellow in the third panel above is a Grumbels management figure who is also attending the show.
I don't know where this is going, but it's a step in Norm Feuti's larger move to shake things up and I would think will at least force Marla to put some of her cards on the table, even if she's not prepared to move more quickly than planned. Or to plan more specifically than she has thus far.
One of the things I've been noting as this greater change comes about is that Marla hasn't decided what sort of store she wants. This is different than a story in which she is an avid gardener or an avid cook and so opens a store mirroring her enthusiasm and expertise.
That would be a storytelling flaw if it were not for the fact that Norm spent a number of years in the retail trade and knows it backwards and forwards. What Marla knows is how to run a store, albeit mostly by process of elimination, based on the corporate blindness and mediocrity she has witnessed as assistant manager at Grumbels.
The strip has always been solidly based on that core knowledge, and it would be a shame to have it go flouncing off into the all-too-familiar dodge in which personal passion translates to instant commercial success. Whatever Marla decides is going to be interesting.
As will be however this cock-up turns out.
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