Corbit Wilkins of Captain Comics, Inc. in Boise, Idaho saw retailer comments about comic shipping (see “Noah Broessel of Pop Culture Paradise on Weekly Delivery Schedule” and “Dan Barnett of Walt's Cards on One Day Earlier”) and says an earlier delivery day would help during weather delays:
Dan states that the same shipping day is the most fair for all retailers. But I have to disagree on one point: many of us have our books shipped to us in locations that are very often late due to weather and distance from a Diamond distribution center. It takes both of my hands to count how many times my books are late each winter due to weather delays. Is it fair if many of us don't even have books to sell on the shipping date?
Noah is correct that our costs are up each week trying to get enough staff to quickly and efficiently get the books ready to sell by the time we open. It is also a disservice to our customers on Wednesdays, as our counters are covered in books while we try to get the subscriptions pulled. Since this takes about four hours to complete, that is four hours of customer service that may be lacking (although we try very hard to give the best that we can!).
If we could receive the books on Tuesdays, we could easily (and with much less stress) pull for the subscriptions the evening before the release date, have the books counted, and could notify Diamond and/or UPS about any missing shipments. And if our books were a day late due to weather, we could still be able to offer those books on the release date!
I know selling books prior to the release date is also an issue, and that Diamond doesn't want to have to police its customers. But if there was a simple hotline or e-mail that the public/retailers could post "date breakers" to, maybe that would deter early sales.
In any case, it is much more important to me to have the time to manage the new releases, manage my staff, and to have the books in hand than to worry about the release date.
The opinions expressed in this Talk Back article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
