After having their storefront on the prime location of Grand River Avenue for four years, 21st Century Comics and Games moved upstairs in June 2004 to cut costs.

But the move traded in visibility for cheaper rent and less foot traffic. The store now depends on comic book gurus and gamers.

"Visibility and getting people to actually make the trek up the stairs is our biggest challenge," said manager Damon Williams. "We still have a customer base, but we're not as easily accessible by virtue of being off the beaten path.

21st Century's customers shop with a game plan. They look for specific products and graphic novels.

"(We're) more a destination location than an impulse (store)," he said.

The store opened in August of 2000 and specializes in comics, graphic novels, role-playing games and board games.

Williams said when the store was downstairs, there was a lot more foot traffic because people would cut through the store to get to the parking lot behind it, but those people weren't doing a lot of buying. Now the store is focused on displaying merchandise in more appealing ways.

The move hasn't stopped astrophysics graduate student Nathan DeLee from visiting the store. DeLee has been a customer since 2002, when he started graduate school at MSU.

"Once we figured out where it was, it wasn't a problem," DeLee said.