When Diamond and Alliance opened the floor for questions from retailers during a luncheon event at the Retailer Summit in Las Vegas this week, it only took a few minutes before the topic of Diamond's proposed change to a Thursday release day for new comic shipments was raised, and once it was raised little else was discussed for the remainder of the Q&A session.  Diamond's VP Operations Cindy Fournier, a long-time member of Diamond's senior management team, conducted the bulk of the discussion. 

 

Throughout the discussion, a number of informal polls via a show of hands were conducted. Although the results were not scientifically representative of Diamond customers as a whole, they were one-sided enough that it's probable that the results will not be significantly different from the poll Diamond took in its September catalogue.  The first question was how many favored a move to Thursday and how many opposed.  The results were approximately ten to one against.  Then the attendees were asked how many thought they'd permanently lose sales if the release day were changed, and about one third of the retailers thought they would.  About half of those thought the loss of sales would be permanent. 

 

A variety of issues were raised, most of which were covered in our earlier article on the topic (see 'Thursday Comics -- Better or Worse?').  A few were new.  Retailer Joe Fields of Concord, California expressed the concern that if the beginning of the week were very slow, some retailers would elect to have their stores closed some of those days, leading to a loss of retail presence for the industry at a time when it's sorely needed. 

 

Another issue not previously discussed here was the concern that the change would cause employee disruption at the retail level, causing employees that were working part-time around a college schedule, for example, to be unable to adjust their schedules to match the needs of the retailer as the release day changed.  Fournier's response was that Diamond had been considering making a change at the beginning of 2002, which would match changing schedules of students as the semester changed.  Another benefit of changing in January, according to Fournier, was that the release day for the two holiday weeks will be Friday due to the days on which Christmas and New Year's fall this year, so the adjustment to Thursday would be less disruptive to consumers.  A retailer responded that January was a bad month to make a change, since it's typically a slow month anyway and moving the release day would only make things worse.  

 

There was considerable discussion on the difficulties of retraining consumers to come in on a new day.  Fournier did say that comic publishers had indicated a willingness to run full-page ads in their books alerting fans to the new release day when the change was made.  

 

A Dallas retailer (Tim from Comic Oasis) raised the issue that most stores in his area (with the notable exception of the Lone Star chain) are closed on Sunday, reflecting the strong Southern Baptist influence.  He questioned whether a change to a Thursday release day would increase pressure to open an additional day on the weekends.

 

At that point, Fournier asked for a show of hands between Tuesday and Wednesday as release days -- Tuesday won by about a two to one margin.  She also asked for a comparison between Tuesday and Thursday and in that comparison, Tuesday won by about a twenty to one margin. 

 

One retailer expressing a contrary view was Nancy Trempe of Comics Unlimited in Westminster, California.  She felt that the increased consistency of a Thursday release day (Monday holidays would not necessitate a change, as they do now) would be a big plus, and that although Wednesday would not be as good a day as it is now, that sales would simply redistribute throughout the week and end up about the same. 

 

The problem of Marvel releasing books to the newsstand at the same time as Diamond gets them was also raised.  Frank Mangiarcina of Friendly Frank's in Kansas City, Missouri said that the Hastings store in his market puts Marvels out on Tuesdays, and a Thursday release day would put his store an additional day behind his competition. 

 

Competitive issues were also raised by Fournier in the context of the Tuesday release day suggestion.  If the current Friday release day from Montreal-area printers were maintained and Diamond shifted its delivery day to Tuesday, comics would be delivered to specialty stores six days later than they are now, relative to their release from the printer, opening the door to competition at the distributor level.

 

A retailer also suggested that Diamond go to twice a week delivery, but a show of hands indicated that a single release day was preferred by the vast majority of retailers. 

 

Results from the poll in Diamond's September catalogue were expected soon.  Retailer D.P. Vernazzarro of Adventure Knight in Valdosta, Georgia asked if Diamond would commit to abide by the results of the poll.  Diamond VP Marketing Roger Fletcher responded that Diamond was collecting feedback in a variety of ways, and would use all of that feedback in making its decision.    

 

Fournier also raised the study done by People magazine, reported by ICv2 in our earlier article on the topic referenced above, which showed that sales were 10-15% higher with a  Friday release day than they were with a Tuesday release day.  This is the only scientific study of the topic of which we're aware, and it appears to indicate that the industry would benefit from a release day closer to the weekend, putting fresher product in stores when consumers have the most money and are most inclined to shop.  This view is clearly not the view of the majority, however, so it seems that if Diamond wants to change its release day, it's going to have to do so in the face of considerable resistance.