Newsarama posted an open letter from ComicsPRO, an association of comic book stores, to distribution-monopolist Diamond following the massive shortage of books to West Coast stores last week, including the super-duper-hot Civil War. It offers several good solutions to prevent problems like this in the future: It only seems fair to suspend all shipments, at least to the affected area, instead of rationing books in such severe amounts.
The only real mistake is making this an open, public letter. Store owners certainly have a problem, but it’s a problem with their distributor. What they’re doing now, quite publicly, is involving their customers: Instead of a relatively small number of customers who won’t be getting their books, ComicsPRO would rather no one got their books. That’s a perfectly sensible solution from their business sense, but it’s a pretty lousy one for fans who aren’t affected by the original problem. While the lukewarm reactions to the letter generally support the retailers, they’re also fairly united in wanting their books as soon as they can get them.
ComicsPRO seems to be making a mistake in assuming retailer concerns are automatically customer concerns, and that’s not always the case. As a fan, and more importantly as a consumer, I’m going to buy what I want when I want; if a store can’t provide it, I’ll go elsewhere, whether that means going to another store or online. I don’t pre-order books, but I’m not sure even that would prevent me from going elsewhere; if I’ve got an arrangement to buy a book from a retailer that cannot provide the book that I really, really, want, I’m going elsewhere.
Diamond seems to be a pretty fucked up organization and it’s almost certainly an unhealthy influence on the industry, but it’s not really my problem as a consumer. Retailers are right to demand action on lousy business practices, but this issue in particular would be better dealt with in private: They could reach an agreement with Diamond to hold back the books like they want, but file it all under vague “shipping delays.”
Diamond’s shipping problems have resulted in enough annoyed consumers without dragging the other half of the continent into the problem.