Diamond Comics is closer to shipping comics on time again

As we reported last month, Diamond Comics, one of the three major comics distributors for North America, has been having major shipping issues, with comics arriving a week late, much to the consternation of comics retailers. 

Yesterday, Diamond’s Chief Sales & Service Officer Chris Powell, updated accounts with a status report. Things are getting better, he said, with “nearly all US retailers were scheduled to receive their product by Wednesday,” for this week. 

Shipments have been delayed because of the holidays and the big winter storm that hit this week,, but “the shipments leaving our warehouse were on a better pace than they had been in December.”

Powell went on to explain why there had been so many delays in the wake of the sudden closure of their Plattsburgh, NY distribution Center: 

Following the recent changes, many of you have had questions about why things haven’t shipped from the distribution center as quickly as we or you need them to.

Periodicals that we don’t receive directly from the various printers (periodicals from publishers who sell to us through other wholesalers) arrive to us over the weekend or as late as Monday for the following week’s releases. We deal with a much wider selection of products, both print and non-print, than other distributors and that leads to delayed or misrouted deliveries that must be dealt with before the picking and packing of orders can begin.

Retailers who are furthest way from the center are picked first, then the next furthest, then the next, etc. As they are picked, they are packed and then handed off to trucking companies for delivery. Then the process begins again …

This process is not working as it needs to, obviously, but modifying it takes time. Ideally, changes would have been planned and tested while we continued to operate as we had been at Plattsburgh. With that no longer an option, we must make changes and test them with live data and shipments while trying to minimize the impact on retailers.

We are considering many options, and they will almost certainly involve additional changes from the way we have operated in the past. I assure you, this is still the primary focus for our Operations, Purchasing, and Retailer Services teams and we will keep you in the loop as there are further developments.

It’s still somewhat incredible to this observer that comics shops have not been crying that the end is near for comics industry over this major disruption. However, the availability of Marvel, DC and Image comics from other distributors must have eased the pain a bit. A quick search on FB found several retailers still complaining, but shipments are gradually getting better. 

Legends Comics of Florence, SC Fan Page was so moved they made a graphic for the news. 

The end of the holidays should indeed help, and Diamond is working to get things moving again. 

A few things that came up as I have spoken to people about this issue over the last month: I’m told that Lunar Distribution has also had occasional late shipments over the last few months, but these got less attention. 

Knowledgeable folks are also consistent in their belief that Diamond will stay in business, as Brian Hibbs explained in his last column. As Brian also explained, if Diamond does go out of the comics distribution business for whatever reason, the most devastating effect would be on smaller indie comics publishers, who would have to find a new way to get into comics shops. Lunar does not have the infrastructure or desire to take them all on, and PRH also probably has no desire to take on a lot of tiny publishers. 

Would a new solution present itself? Eventually. Where there is a dollar to be made, someone will try to claim it. But this would be a tremendous disruption to the industry.