Logistics snafus that led to problems getting regular deliveries made the 2024 holiday season challenging in unprecedented ways for comic stores.  The biggest source of problems was at Diamond Comic Distributors, which closed its Plattsburgh, New York distribution center in November and moved the processes being handled there to their Olive Branch, Mississippi warehouse (see “Diamond Closing Plattsburgh DC”).

The move from Plattsburgh was rushed due to Diamond’s inability to extend its Plattsburgh lease on a month-to-month basis after the end of its term as it had expected, Diamond Chief Sales and Service Officers Chris Powell told retailers in a December 10 email.  "While we had made the decision to consolidate our distribution centers, the intent was to do so over a longer period of time in a slower part of the year," he wrote.  "Unexpectedly, the owner of the Plattsburgh facility chose not to extend our lease on a month-to-month basis, having identified another tenant without even advertising the space.  This drastically reduced the time needed to plan and execute these changes.  This accelerated timeline for our move, compounded by holiday schedules and necessary invoicing/reporting adjustments, created a perfect storm that has affected you in unacceptable ways."

Those problems included delayed shipments and inability to access invoices and shipping information on incoming shipments, creating scheduling, customer communication, and check-in problems for retailers that began the first week that shipments were to be handled in Olive Branch (the week of November 25), and continued through the season.

In subsequent emails, Powell told retailers that Diamond had added an additional shift (presumably through a staffing agency) that began work on Monday, December 16 to help speed shipments.  Powell indicated that they expected improvements to begin that week, while granting that the new employees would not pack as quickly as the legacy Olive Branch employees.  While there may have been some improvement, shipments and data movement had not returned to the routine that existed before the warehouse move through at least Christmas week.

Diamond declined additional comment beyond the messages sent to retailers.  "We do not have anything new to report," a Diamond spokesperson told ICv2.  "As we have any new updates, we’ll be sure to share them with retailers promptly."

We also heard of delays on Lunar Distribution shipments from comic retailers in multiple regions of the country (although much less frequently than we did on Diamond delays).  In response to questions, Lunar Distribution Co-Owner Christina Merkler told ICv2 that Lunar shipments were being made as usual, and that delays were due to slowing carrier service, "Lunar did not have shipping disruptions in December," she said.  "Any delayed deliveries would have been related to shipping carrier issues due to the excessive number of packages that are now the norm for the holiday shopping season."

Lunar packing operations were proceeding normally, she told us.  "The Lunar team worked through the holiday season as normal and shipments were completed on time for all weeks.  "The 1/1 release week was completed on time and we were still able to provide time off for our warehouse staff to enjoy the holidays with their families.  Titles for 1/8 release are being processed now (written on December 28), and no disruption is expected for those deliveries to be made on time as well."

Things at PRH Publisher Services were quiet over the holidays.