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Hastings… Breaking Street Date Embargoes On Comics?

Published Mon, 30 Dec 2013 13:30:49 -0600

Last updated Sun, 05 Jan 2014 14:42:18 -0600

Here is a comic bought by a rival comic shop owner in Richmond, Kentucky at a branch of Hastings, a chain store that became Diamond Comic Distributor's biggest customer when it began to source comic books from the direct market and basically placed a small comic store in every branch. You'll often see the exclusive covers that Hastings commissioned featured on this site. And in a world where Marvel are pulling out of bookstore newsstands, it has become a remarkably potent way of getting public eyeballs on monthly American comics.

But it has suffered accusations of breaking the embargo dates set by direct market monopoly distributor Diamond Comic Distribution. Because of Christmas shipping irregularities, most American comic shops got the comics due to go on sale tomorrow, at the end of last week, and held them before putting them on sale.

The retailer mentioned above made a purchase and took photos of all of this week's comics on sale last week at his local Hastings.

Which certainly appear to show comics not meant to be out yet. The retailer tells me "I wonder how many times Hastings can break the new comic street date before they'll get in trouble. The correct answer is "infinity". Hastings has a location in a neighboring town (Richmond, KY) and I've had customers inform me on several occasions of being able to get comic product before the posted street date. Normally this hasn't concerned me because they're far enough away that it doesn't directly impact my sales and physically going down there to get evidence would be a bit time consuming. Recently I… busted them with a street date violation. With as often as I am "secret shopped" (and we all know how transparent secret shoppers are) I am just amazed that Hastings hasn't been penalized for early street date violations….oh yeah…I'm totally NOT amazed because they are Diamond's biggest account."

James Parker of Hastings, and one of the main guys behind Hastings move in the business told Bleeding Cool that Hastings are held to the same standard as anyone else and that "we are very good about street dates in general. The stores have a lot of safeguards in place. I'm not saying we are perfect but we are very diligent to correct any issues we can."

Diamond declined to comment on the specific story, but said they take such reported violations seriously.

Why does it matter? Well, it's all about providing good service and a level playing field. In the old days, stores would get comics on the same day as sale and would have to perform acrobatic feats to unpack them, check them, put reserved copies aside and put comics on sale for that day's customers. Sme stores would get comics on different days as well. And over Christmas there might be one, or even two, skip weeks of new comics. The current system gives everyone the time to sort through the week's comics before putting them on sale, and allow for comics to be sent in advance to cover shipping problems over holiday periods. If comic stores are free to put them up whenever they want, all their rivals will have to follow suit and the current system goes back to the way it used to be. The current system is far more professional and it's in retailer's interests to maintain it.

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