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More Diamond Comics Distributor Delays And Comic Store Distress

More Diamond Comic Distributor Delays, Comic Store distress and worries for the future of the comics direct market going forward.

Two weeks ago, Bleeding Cool reported on delays from Diamond Comic Distributors as a result of closing the Plattsburgh distribution centre on the New York/Canada border. Yesterday, Bleeding Cool writer and comic store employee Jeremy Konrad shared how he was losing sleep at night as a retailer as a result of Diamond Comic Distributor delays. At the time, I was knee-deep in updates to what had been happening, and it seems that Konrad's article may have inspired Diamond to send out a second missive yesterday. But dial back a week, on the 4th of December, Chris Powell, Chief Sales & Service Officer at Geppi Family enterprise, owner of Diamond Comic Distributors, told retailers;

"Disruptions from the consolidation of accounts to Diamond's Olive Branch Distribution Center have been compounded by the Thanksgiving holiday, despite the Distribution Center teams working through the weekend. For product with an on-sale date of December 4, many shipments will be delayed to Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Due to the changes to how we process shipments, Operations is unable to provide Retailer Services with information on shipments any earlier than when they appear on the Retailer Services Website's Shipment Tracking page. The most up to date information for retailers is on that page, so please check there each morning for tracking information. With a full 7 days to work this week, the Operations teams' goal is to minimize disruptions for products with an on-sale date of December 11, but December is a challenging month under the best circumstances so we will provide further updates as they are available. We appreciate your support and patience during this complex change, and are working diligently to resolve these issues and return to a reliable schedule such as we have maintained in the past."

Yesterday evening, Chris Powell sent a follow-up.

"Let me begin by offering a direct apology. I know the shipping delays and inconsistencies over the past month have caused significant challenges and frustration, and I sincerely apologize for the impact this has had on your business operations. 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. 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. We are dedicated to getting things back on track, and our Operations teams have worked every day other than Thanksgiving to help get us there. Here is what we as an organization have been doing to address this:

• Team Mobilization: Our various teams are working diligently to improve processing and delivery times, and to resolve outstanding issues as quickly as possible. Transitioning to a single facility requires additional staffing, training, and process adjustments and, while progress is being made, it hasn't been fast enough.
• Communication: We understand that the impacts of these challenges vary widely, and that has impacted our ability to provide the specific updates you are accustomed to. We are committed to addressing every question and concern with all the transparency and timeliness possible, whether in a Diamond Daily update or a reply to a support ticket or phone call. I do want to express my gratitude to those of you who have shown patience and understanding toward our Retailer Services, POS / Tech Support, and Credit teams. They take great pride in delivering exceptional service and share your frustration when they are unable to meet their own high standards. Each of those teams relies on information received from others, so it is a group effort and each of them is doing their very best.
• Operational Adjustments: Progress is being made every week. We have implemented new measures to ensure greater accuracy in invoicing, reporting, and delivery schedules moving forward. For example, enhanced packing lists and more accurate invoicing processes are being fine-tuned to help simplify receiving and accounting workflows. This week, our Operations team is working tirelessly to ensure all US and Canadian deliveries are delivered by Friday, with a goal of returning to a consistent Wednesday-or-earlier delivery schedule as soon as possible.

"My goal is to provide you with accurate, timely answers to your questions. While my team has been doing their best, they are often limited by the information available at any given time. With the support of our software developers and the Operations teams, we are enhancing our systems to provide more timely and accurate updates. We remain focused on resolving shipping delays first, followed by addressing data and invoicing needs. We are making progress and will continue to share updates as they become available. Thank you for your continued loyalty and patience."

Half an hour later, there was another update from Chris which read:

"Disruptions from the consolidation of accounts to Diamond's Olive Branch Distribution Center continue, despite the Distribution Center teams working through the past two weekends and additional shifts. For additional details on the transition, please see the separate email that was sent earlier today, December 10.  Please Note: For product with an on-sale date of December 11, some shipments have been delayed to Thursday or Friday this week. Product with an on-sale date of December 18 is likely to be delayed next week. Our Operations team has been able to move closer to a schedule that allows us to deliver shipments by Wednesday, while our longer-term goal is to deliver earlier. Some retailers have seen issues with invoices not being posted on the Retailer Services Website. Our developers identified an issue that they believe has been resolved so current invoices should hopefully be available on Wednesday, December 11.  Due to necessary changes to how we process shipments, Operations is unable to provide Retailer Services with information on shipments any earlier than when they appear on the Retailer Services Website's Shipment Tracking page. The most up to date information for retailers is on that page, so please check there each morning for tracking information. We appreciate your support and patience during this complex change, and are working diligently to resolve these issues and return to a reliable schedule such as we have maintained in the past."

That such delays and problems are happening now, makes things appear more vulnerable for Diamond, who has gone from being the direct market monopoly, to losing all distribution rights to DC Comics in North America, to losing exclusive rights and becoming a third-party redistribution for Marvel, Image, IDW, Dark Horse, Tokyopop, and a shared distributor for Oni Press, Scout, Magma, Mad Cave, Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, CEX, Ahoy, AWA and more.  They have reduced their operations and moved some over to their Alliance games distributor, but this just gives retailers a bigger reason to move some of their orders over to Lunar and Penguin Random House… just as Boom Studios announces it will no longer be Diamond exclusive either. Here's what a number of other retailers have been saying to their customers over the past couple of weeks on social media… I don't dare see what they have been saying since last night.

The Great Escape of Louisville, Kentucky says "Shipping Alert Once again the problems at the Diamond Comics Distribution warehouse is causing a delay in shipping. This is a tentative list of the books scheduled to ship (along with the missing ones from last week) but we have no idea of when they will arrive. Check back for updates. As with last week, DC Comics are not affected by this and will be on the rack when we open on Wednesday. "

Cool Kids Comics & Toys of East Meadow, New York "It appears that Diamond Comics has once again failed to ship out this week's books on time. I will have DC, Image, Mad Cave and a few other publishers on the shelf tomorrow. Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, Boom and Dynamite remain to be seen. Marvel Comics that ship in February will be from the new distributor, but for now we're stuck dealing with this madness."

Main St Comics, of Lee,  Maryland  "DIAMOND COMICS IS LATE WITH SHIPPING AGAIN THIS WEEK. MARVEL, BOOM, IDW etc will be here on Friday.
We hope Diamond gets their act together and resolves this late shipping sooner ve later."

Rock Bottom Books of Fayetteville, Arkansas  "Ok!, finally I received a email from Diamond Comics Distributors on when we will receive the missing comics from last week. We have a shipment coming Supposed to be delivered Monday to get us started. I have not seen an actual invoice yet so I can't tell you exactly what we are getting. So we will see!! It's like Christmas I suppose. Thank you for your patience during this frustrating period. "

Kenny Jacobs at Nuclear Comics North Park, San Diego, posted "I kinda lost track with zero product in nearly 3 weeks because DIAMOND Comics Distribution decided to consolidate their warehouses and then NOT ship anything for weeks and from what I've been told, is that comic shipments have been LATE throughout the country"

Goldmine Comics & Cards, Wyoming, Michigan posts "For those of you who get the Diamond Comics Previews magazine from us there will be a delay in getting them since Diamond Comics is massively downsizing their operations in the United States and closing their warehouse and operations in Plattsburgh, New York, where we always used to get our shipments from. We should have had them two weeks ago but due to Diamond Comic's bad coordinating skills in getting everything put into one warehouse in Mississippi, we've had missed shipments, no communications, and no idea about what they're going to do. Right now we don't know when we're getting the Previews Magazines as we don't even have any shipments showing up in Diamond's shipping system, and our last shipment went to another store in New York, who then contacted Diamond about them getting our stuff and later forwarded the items to us a week later. It is things like this that make all comic retailer jobs a lot harder when the distributor that has been open the longest of all of them really screws up since COVID 2020 and then loses tons of publishers due to their errors in getting products to us in a timely basis. At this time, I have my doubt in Diamond Comics being in business much longer if they continue to operate as they have been lately.
Sorry but we don't know when Previews Magazine will be here, or when their shipments are going to arrive. They aren't telling us anything, so I'm posting an update here to let our customers know what's really going on behind the scenes."

Krav'n Comics, of Pottsdown, Pennsylvania"New DC books but last weeks Diamond Comics Distribution of a week behind items. We are not sure when the items due out this Wednesday from them will be coming. I will keep you posted."

Great Stories Comics and Gaming, Whitinsville, Maryland: Diamond Comics is experiencing shipment delays due to a closing of one warehouse. That said, Marvel and some Indie titles are not yet available for sale this week. In the meantime, we do have our DC, Image, and some other smaller publisher releases available today! We will provide you an update on the rest of the week's new books as soon as we have it!-The Great Stories Team

Powers Comics, Green Bay, Wisconsin: Diamond Comics is the distributor we get half our comics from. They are consolidating warehouses and it's been a total logistical nightmare SO we apologize but we don't know when we will have our Marvel, IDW and Dark Horse comics from last week OR this week. We will keep you posted….— feeling depressed.

Newbury Comics, Salem, New Hampshire: Here's a look at some of our new comics!
Unfortunately, both Lunar and Diamond comics are delayed. We expect to receive the Lunar titles sometime today and the Diamond titles within the next couple of days. We thank (and appreciate) you for understanding.

Comix Connection – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: All of our comics from LUNAR DISTRIBUTORS have arrived, and will be available as expected Wednesday morning. (These are mainly DC books—including the new Absolute Superman #2, Batman #155, Birds of Prey #16, the new Two-Face #1, and DC's Batman Smells Holiday One-Shot, among others.) Unfortunately, our shipment from DIAMOND COMICS is running late. We are hoping to have it early Wednesday, and will get it on the shelves as quickly as possible. SORRY FOR THE DELAY!

Amazing Fantasy Books and Comics of Frankfort, Tinley Park, and Lockport, Illinois: Well this is annoying. Due to Diamond Comics warehouse move, this week's comic shipment of Image, Boom, Oni, Dark Horse and IDW comics will arrive late. All 3 locations are expected to have their Diamond shipment on Wednesday 12/4/24. Give us a few hours to process them and then we should be good to go! All 3 locations will have DC when we open on Wednesday AM and Frankfort will have Marvel comics as well. The rest of the publishers comics will be available a little later in the day. Please note, in addition, this week we are expecting all of the missing titles from last week as well. Fingers crossed we will be back to our regular schedule next week!

Strange Universe Comics of Corpus Christi, Texas: I'm really getting tired of saying this… Another delayed new release shipment from Diamond, we apologize for the inconvenience… hopefully they'll be in later on in the week! DC comics will be posted later on this afternoon!

Silver Wolf Comics and Collectibles of Bakersfield, California: Attention Subscribers and Comic Book Fans. Diamond Comics Distributor and UPS notified SWCC that 3 boxes of this weeks comic books were picked up by UPS 11/30/24, BUT NOT SHIPPED OUT UNTIL 12/3/24 9:30 AM EST due to weather. Estimated to arrive Friday 12/6/24 by 4 PM PST. We will have comics out for Pickup and sell Saturday 12/7/24. Normally we receive comics on Tuesday's and out for sale on Wednesday. Dusty, SWCC

The Great Escape ofBowling Green, Kentucky:  Well, some of the books are here. Due to a shipping delay, we have not received our books from Diamond Comics. Not sure when they'll get here but we'll keep you updated. @dcofficial books are ready for when the doors open at 12pm.

Rodman Comics, Ankeny, Iowa: "I just received the last two weeks of Diamond books yesterday. Made sure to post it on Facebook. It is causing a lot of confusion with my customers and I understand why, they just want to buy comics the average customer does not know what comics Lunar, Penguin, or Diamond carry if they even know who they are."

The Battlegrounds Games and Comics of Dalton, Georgia: "Our Diamond Comics order has been delayed this week! We will keep you in the loop on it's arrival as we receive it!"

Comics Metropolis, of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: "This week's shipment from Diamond Comic Distributors has been delayed and will not arrive until next week. This has affected the availability of new releases from Boom Studios, Dynamite, Titan Comics, and other small, independent publishers, in addition to some new manga and merchandise releases. This week's new releases from Marvel, DC, Image Comics, IDW, and Dark Horse are available for purchase, as usual. We appreciate your patience and understanding."

Limited Editions of McAllen, Texas: "As you might know, last week as well as this week we had delays and incomplete shipments for New Comic Book Day from Marvel, Boom Studios, and Dynamite as well as a few other small publishers. This is due to our distributor for these titles, Diamond Comic Distribution, consolidating their two operational warehouses into one, which caused a delay across the board. We expect this to be the case for next week as well.
These unexpected delays have left shops across the country scattered, and we include ourselves among that number, but we're taking precautions to track everything that doesn't arrive and prioritize both our pull members and a speedy completion of our process so NCBD isn't too affected. Any missing titles, we will track and replace as soon as they arrive, or if they don't, as soon as possible, and we will keep you updated in the spirit of transparency, as best as we can.
We understand that the holidays are hectic, this makes them even more so, but we will do what we can to facilitate everything as best as we can, and as always, we thank you for your patience and your patronage."

Parts Unknown of Greensboro, North Carolina: "Just got an update from Diamond Comics, the new books this week have been delayed due to the bad snow weather up north. We hope to get the new books by Thursday or Friday. Sorry for the delay but that is the breaks."

We do hope this start to improve very, very soon.

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