Jay Bardyla of Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton, Alberta has been following the retailer comments on comics shipping (see “Noah Broessel of Pop Culture Paradise on Weekly Delivery Schedule”) and says Tuesday delivery won’t solve all of the problems for retailers: 

As the recent slew of All Star Bats #10 on eBay proves, a Tuesday release for stores won’t solve any problems, and frankly, I’m a little tired of the discussion.  Is it more difficult or challenging or expensive to get your books on Wednesday and fill files and service non-regulars?  It’s not, especially if you structure your business properly and educate your file customers.

Our stores are located in one of the densest comic store markets in North America.  We are the last ones to open on Wednesday (11am and Noon openings).  We don’t discount and we price our books based on the weekly billed exchange rate.  We bag and price every comic that we put on the shelves for sale, a time consuming process.  And we have the largest file customer base in the region.

Yet our regulars know that if they come too early in the day, we may not be finished with the shipment, so they come later in the day.  We tell them when we pick up product, how long it takes us to work through the order and when they can reasonably expect their files to be ready, and they respect that and work with us by letting us get our jobs done.  Those who chose to come on Wednesday usually do at the end of the day.

We don’t work harder or faster just because the stuff arrives on Wednesday and other stores may get their stock on the shelves before we do.  We’d rather do it right and proper, maintaining a level of service that our customers, regular and otherwise, have come to expect.

If the stores that get their product on Tuesday decide to sell early (and clearly, there’s some that do) and customers go to there, they may not be exactly the customers you want for the long haul anyway.  In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing, adapting to what exists, educating our customers and taking care of their needs as best we can.  That’s what will help make a successful business.

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