James Hintz of Chaos Bazaar in Chariton, Iowa saw the news of the WizKids exclusive distribution deal with Diamond/Alliance (see 'WizKids Goes Exclusive') and isn't convinced WizKids is motivated by improvements for retailers:
My reaction: What are they thinking? Bluntly, the economy of scale says it's cheaper to ship product to two distribution companies then it is to ship to 16. As far as them wanting more info from us retailers, it was never a consideration or I'd have been asked at last year's Alliance open house to fill out reams of surveys, give them multiple contact phone numbers, e-mail address, snail mail addresses, pager numbers, fax numbers, etc. so they would have access to my wants/needs 24/7 as a retailer. They hardly talked to me there.
Is the Diamond/Alliance exclusive a good idea? NEVER.
Hey
Diamond... Please. I've been with them about a year now and I still have no clue what I'm doing 70% of the time. I have reps there that I have never talked to and I don't even know what they do, much less if they are still there. I've had three product reps, and three customer service reps so far. I never know who to ask questions of or at times what questions to ask. Diamond has some wonderful people working for them, but they don't stay long and they are even more clueless then I am the majority of the time.
As far as filling everyone's orders through this merger; it will never happen. The warehouses at Diamond and
I think I can speak for every hobby store owner when I say if we either had to choose between the exclusive deal with Diamond/Alliance or not have WizKids products in the market, then Topps Inc should have let them rest in peace.
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