When does SWAT hit the West Coast?

[Balog]

I was walking through the PX last week and noticed they had received the Sept SWAT while I had not. No big deal, it seems the stores often get their copies before I do. However, as the days keep going by I'm starting to wonder if it got lost on the way here.

So how long does it usually take SWAt to get out here to 29 Palms and the West Coast? Should it get to subscribers about the same time as it reaches vendors, and if not how long should the gap be? Thanks for helping me out, this has been bugging me for a while.

 

[Kathy]

Balog --

Hi, I'm SWAT's production director. We've done a lot of work over the past year to improve delivery service, so I'm sorry to hear that you haven't received the September SWAT.

If you look to the left, under my name you'll see where I live, so I can say for sure that if I have my copy of September, you should have yours. And I've got mine.

Please e-mail me (kathy@swatmag.com) your mailing address and we'll get September out to you next week. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Thanks, Kathy Allard

 

[Balog]

Hello Kathy,

well, thankfully it's no longer a problem. As of the 14th I did receive my copy of the Sept issue(yay!). And only slightly mangled, which is more than I can say about 95% of the Shotgun News' and Gun List's I've received. Thanks for addressing the issue for me, however.

I am kind of curious about what the normal range of arrival is. When do they usually ship, and from where? Do vendors have preference over subscribers in terms of who gets shipped to first?

 

[Denny Hansen]

Balog,
Subscribers are mailed first, but after they ship we have no control over the postal service delivery system.

For example, the October issue began shipping to subscribers on August 30. That issue is scheduled to hit newsstands on Sept. 19. Although vendors are theortically supposed to wait for the "official" on-sale date, many put them out in advance.

Denny

 

[Kathy]

Glad to hear you have your copy of September, though that was extremely late. You should have October soon.

SWAT ships from the printer on the last week of each month. Newsstand and subscriber copies ship out on the same day, but via completely different shipping methods. The newsstand copies go by truck to various distribution points. It takes about three weeks from when they leave the printer until they are actually put on the shelves of individual retail outlets.

Subscriber copies go in the mail and ship by a special class, Periodicals Rate. Our printer is in southern Florida, so subscribers who live in the southeast can (note: *can*) receive their copy in a matter of days, and subscribers in Washington state and Oregon get theirs weeks later (though not the six weeks you waited for your copy of September). I would say two to three weeks delivery time is average for the West Coast, so sometimes you will receive it before it goes on sale at local outlets, and sometimes not.

Of course we really want subscribers to receive their copy before it goes on sale at newsstands. To me this is one of the benefits of subscribing, that you get your copy first. But realistically, it doesn't always happen. Rich Lucibella came down hard on all our suppliers earlier this year to implement changes that have improved delivery time, and as a result, reports of late and/or missing copies have dropped considerably. But we still want to know of any problems, so we appreciate your informing us.

Kathy