Please Be Extra Solicitous Of Your Shops This Week

The winter storm just passed dumped a lot of snow on the East Coast, including the headquarters of Diamond Comics, by far the primary distribution mechanism for the Direct Market. I canvassed a few retailers with a promise of non-attribution: a couple in the area hit by the storm expect disruption (late books, perhaps some shortages) at the shop level but at least in my small sample no one expected a major hit at the distribution level. That's as of yesterday; we'll see how it plays out, which is more important than any guessed-at prediction. The only thing I noticed at the Diamond site is that some ways to repeat information in different formats has been pushed back due to the weather.

One thing I hope that those of us that use a shop can do is perhaps be extra nice to them at this specific moment of the retail year. Aside from rhia disruptive weather, now is the time after holiday buying and the initial, one hopes positive effects for whatever the four or five largest market-share publishers put together summer into Fall. Anecdotal evidence suggests a number of shops are dissatisfied with the direction of the top of the market relative to other years. It may be a while before things sputter to life in 2016, snow or no snow. If you can, it might be a time to reward something else your store does well. They are retail's greatest miracle.

A formal update or three might happen today; I'll report them here.
 
posted 10:55 pm PST | Permalink
 

---

 
Daily Blog Archives
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
 
Full Archives