How are Canadian specialty stores managing now that Diamond's out of business?

Something I may have vaguely noticed in the past few months, but was unable to address until now, is that Diamond Distribution went throughly out of business; more than just filing bankruptcy. The CBC's looking at how this affects specialty stores in provinces like Newfoundland:

Comic book shops and a publisher in St. John's are still grappling with the repercussions more than a year after a major distributor declared bankruptcy.

Diamond Distribution, one of the world’s largest English comic book distribution companies, filed for bankruptcy in the United States in January 2025. For decades, it had been a supplier of comic books, board games, collectives and figures.

“Truly, everything you see in my shop, like, at one point I could have ordered from Diamond,” said Kerri Neil, owner of Downtown Comics in St. John’s.

Neil now orders from eight different distribution companies to stock her shelves. She said there were problems with having just one company dominating the industry, and it was expensive to use with the U.S. exchange rate and shipping from New York to Montreal and finally to St. John’s.

“As soon as we could jump ship … we were out of there,” said Neil.

But having to order from multiple companies can be a headache for small business owners, Neil added.

I realize many specialty stores are small business incarnate, but even so, nobody should be held hostage to just one single distributor if, in the end, they rip off the clients as Diamond did, including the following:

Black Panel Press founder Andrew Benteau said he previously used Diamond as a distributor and was owed thousands of dollars when the company went bankrupt. He has since been able to secure IPG as a distributor.

“We've had no revenue from books distributors since … [the] end of 2024 until last week, we got a payment of $600,” Benteau said.

As a result, he’s taken a second job in advertising.

So there's another business that got short-changed by Diamond, and no telling if they'll ever be repaid. Seriously, it was a mistake for retailers to rely solely upon their business years ago, and a shame if nobody would establish competitors years before. Now, many are finally trying, but maybe they should consider that some formats for comics like the pamphlet have to be jettisoned in favor of the paperbacks/hardcovers. If they'd consider, it just might alleviate the difficulties now faced in seeking distribution and how its done. Just like USA retailers, even Canadian specialty stores should give that some thought.