Small artists who have to deal with Diamond have obviously had negative experiences with the company, but they've got to be the only folks who complain about the distributor, right? No way. On the opposite end of the spectrum from DIY artists are the stores who buy their product from Diamond. Because the distributor is the only company they can buy from, there’s no one else they can give their business to when an order is wrong or something is damaged. They just have to live with it, because there’s no other option.

By the mid-90s, Diamond gained such a stranglehold on the comic book industry, the Federal government couldn’t deny something seemed fishy about their business practices. Specifically, that whole thing about Diamond buying up all of their competitors until they were the only game in town ("town" here means "the entire United States"). In 1997, the U.S. Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the alleged monopoly of Diamond. After a three year investigation, they decided no further action needed to be taken.

See, while the company did indeed hold a monopoly on singles comic books in North America, they didn’t hold a monopoly on book distribution. Diamond founder and CEO Steve Geppi later noted how the company worked closely with the DOJ to delve into the comic book industry. He said, “We were confident that we had conducted our business in a fair and ethical manner and that the DOJ would concur. Now, over three years later, they have finished an exhaustive look at not just Diamond, but the entire comic book industry, and have agreed with us that there is no cause for action. Obviously, we felt that was the case all along, and we're pleased with the Department's decision."

Even though the DOJ decided to drop their investigation into the company, they still made it common knowledge that Diamond does in fact have a monopoly on the industry. If they don’t want to work with a specific bookstore, then they can do anything in their power to make the lives of the employees of said shop a living hell. In 2015, Mimi Cruz, the manager of Night Flight Comics in Salt Lake City, detailed how the monopoly was still wrecking sales for both publishers and booksellers by either mishandling orders, or simply not fulfilling requests they agreed upon.

In a lengthy blog post, she wrote, “We all suffer the negative results of that monopoly with increasingly poor service. It is harmful to the commerce of our industry as a whole.” If only there was a second, or (dare to dream) a third distribution company.