Pat Fuge of Gnome Games in Green Bay, Wisconsin has been following the recent story of two major booksellers pulling the top selling DC graphic novels from their shelves (see "B&N to DC--It's On!" and "Books-a-Million Joins Boycott of DC GNs") and had this to say.

Over the past couple of days we have watched as initially Barnes & Noble and then Books-a-Million has pulled DC products from their shelves in response to an Amazon exclusive deal.  Initially it appears on the surface to be positioning and posturing by big players for a bigger piece of the pie, but I believe much more is at stake here than meets the eye.

Retailers simply desire fair footing and protection of the value of the goods we market and sell.  Whether we are a tiny brick and mortar comic shop, or a multi-store mega chain the inability or open unwillingness of a manufacturer to support and maintain the perceived value of the product in the market over time devalues merchandise to the point where it begins to damage the rest of our business.  At that point in time we, the retailer, have two choices -- suck it up or dump the product.  In the cases where the product devalues our entire business, such as in the case of early exclusivity for an online retailer, or deep discounting through a manufacturer or apparently preferred online retailer website it may just damage that value to the point where it become untenable to maintain a business relationship, stock and /or market the products.

When faced with the decision to pull product we are also faced with the decision to do it quietly and move on or to do it openly, boldly and with gusto, to make our position obvious to all.  I applaud B&N and Books-a-Million for making the choice, making it public and telling DC why they did it in a very public and open way.  Maybe, just maybe this will open a few eyes in the game industry as well.

Now I do not sell any comics, but the same principles apply in the game world.  I'm not worried about exclusive distribution deals like WizKids and Playroom have done to secure their supply chain.  These types of relationships may be good for our mutual bottom lines and seem to have protected the value of the product lines.  I believe that other manufacturers would do well by decreasing the number of places their products can enter the market.

I'm also not concerned about an mass market exclusive every once in a while to Target or Walmart with a teaser product that increases potential exposure.  When done well these increase new customer awareness, and often with solid communication and marketing coordination can drive our sales up significantly.

What I am concerned about are those few manufacturers that either chase the golden carrot and abandon the hard working independent brick and mortar retailers that have made their game successful, and those manufacturers that fail to control their supply chain so that their product becomes the food of choice for the online discount wolves.  In these cases I can be faced with the same level of decision that B&N and B-a-M were faced with, to get rid of an entire product line because of the manufacturers marketing and supply management decisions.

I also hope those game manufacturers that can not or choose not to level the playing field and protect the perceived value of their products read the articles and see that this can be prevented by sound supply chain management, open retailer communication and an awareness of the influence your decisions may have on the perceived value of your product lines in our stores.  Your decisions to do exclusive deals for cash up front, not controlling supply to the online discount market or putting products out of the reach of the B&M retailer with singular mass market exclusives damages both the relationship we have and may result in products being pulled from our shelves.

As always, if your games are on my shelves, or you want them to be there; and you think your companies position may be perceived as having a negative effect on our relationship -- call me.  It is always so much better to work it out before the damage is done than to see your product being tossed out the door in a very public manner.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.