News!

Hello Everyone!

First up…

WE MISS YOU!

Now you may have read about the current state of the comic market but just to bring everyone up to date here is the statement that Diamond UK put out recently.

Take a read and I’ll give you my thoughts.

Dear Retailer

17/04/2020

We can today announce that we are making plans to release the product that should have been released 6 weeks ago (25th March) for 
Wednesday 13th May.

We have taken into account and considered as many factors as possible and fully understand that we cannot be sure what the UK governments guidance is likely to be on 7^th May when the current lock down is reviewed.

However, we feel that we need to prepare for what will hopefully be a re-start of some semblance of normality especially based on the knowledge that NEW releases are hoping to be released by Diamond US and publishers mid/end of May. This will hopefully enable us to catch up with US/Worldwide releases as quickly as possible.

29/04/2020 

Diamond Comic Distributors is working toward the distribution of new, weekly product in mid- to late-May. We have had many exciting conversations with our publishing and retailer partners and are pleased to take the next steps toward that goal.

While we know that the pace and process of reopening stores will be different throughout the country, we have set a target on-sale date of
Wednesday May 20^th.

As all of you are aware, however,
we find ourselves in a fluid situation and there are many factors including quarantine measures, what services retailers are able to offer and the volume of orders that have the potential to effect whether we are able to meet this date.
That said, we have heard your concerns and agree that taking these steps toward resuming distribution is a positive, important step in our collective move forward.

We are providing this target date to allow you as much time as possible to communicate with your customers and gather the information you need to order appropriately for your store and customer base.

Kind Regards

Diamond Comic Distributors UK

Ok well on the one hand 

HOORAY! 
NEW COMICS SOON!

On the other hand...
we want to absolutely follow the Government’s lock down recommendation.

In regard to your peace of mind and all of our safety the following measures are being implemented.

We will be fitting what are known as ‘Sneeze screens’ in both stores at our 3 main counters.

All the staff will be wearing customized fabric face masks in store which is in line with our European counterparts.

1 or 2 customer’s maximum will be allowed in store to maintain responsible social distancing.

All counters shelves general surfaces will be wiped down and as squeaky clean as possible.

Limited opening days (to be confirmed)

Limited opening hours with a tentative plan of  

10am - 11am for the vulnerable.

11am- 3pm

The BIG question as we take these baby steps back to trading is just what will be the scale of business that we can expect in this very unique trading environment.

Just in case you didn’t know the financially riskiest product that we stock 
(risky defined by time sensitive and non returnable ) 
Is the periodical COMIC.

If you have a standing order with us THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Your support and loyalty is the back bone and bulk of each weeks new comic delivery.

To everyone who is reading this and comes in each week to browse the shelves instead of committing to a standing order (for whatever reason -I get it) this is the time to set up a standing order if you want to guarantee getting the comics you want.

Why?

We have had to tweak our shelf copies of new releases down to a lower level in anticipation of a drop in business. 

So as I said PLEASE this is the time to drop us a line at

orders@davescomics.co.uk with your standing order requirements.

You can use the new release check boxes on the blog that cover incoming comics for the week

http://davescomics.co.uk/thisweek.html

and for the following week

 http://davescomics.co.uk/nextweek.html

The longer notice you give us the increased likelihood that we can place advance reorders so that you receive your desired comics on release week as opposed to the following week.

I say all this at this point in time because it is very likely that if we reopen on Wednesday 13^th and Wednesday 20^th it will be against the Government’s guidelines.

 Consequently we will only be open for Standing orders and pre-orders on those two days.

Hours to be confirmed.

The weekly shipping lists will be updated on the blog as soon as we get confirmation from Diamond.

I’ll update our opening plans after we get the next Government lock down review on the 7^th May.

In closing I must thank every one of you who offered to prepay for orders, buy vouchers or dropped us a line with concern and support-it really meant so much to us all.

Stay safe!

Keep reading comics & we hope to see you at a social distance soon

XXX

Stephen & Family Dave’s