Closely-Watched Packages: The Saga of 'Indiana Jones and the Delayed Shipment of (4K) Blus'
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| © 2021 Paramount Home Media Distribution and Lucasfilm Ltd. |
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s mid-afternoon here in my corner
of Florida on Tuesday, June 15, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 83˚F
(28˚C)
under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 73% and the wind blowing from the
west-southwest at 9 MPH (15 KM/H), the heat index is 92˚F (33˚C). The forecast for the rest
of the day calls for occasional thunderstorms throughout the afternoon and
evening hours; the high will be 85˚F (30˚C). Tonight, storms will
continue to pass through our area, and the low will be 74˚F (24˚C). The Air
Quality Index (AQI) is 34 or Good.
If you recall, I ordered the Indiana Jones: 4-Movie
Collection 4K UHD Blu-ray box set on Amazon as a pre-order on March 16. Paramount
Home Media Distribution scheduled a release date of Tuesday, June 8 – just a few
days before the 40th Anniversary of Raiders of the Lost Ark’s theatrical
release (June 12, 1981).
Initially, Amazon – basing its estimates on Paramount’s rosy
drop date info – informed me that my 5-disc set (four 4K UHD Blu-rays, one 1080p
HD Blu-ray) would arrive here on the 10th or 11th. But on
Monday the seventh, Amazon advised that while my order of the remastered Baseball:
A Film by Ken Burns had shipped and was on its way, the Indy 4K set could
not be shipped and that my delivery date was now unknown.
Of course, I wasn’t the only Indy fan who received a “sorry,
but we don’t have a delivery date for your order” email; millions of us who had
not ordered the pricier steelbook set are still, as I write this, waiting for
our less expensive Digipak sets to ship.
In its infinite wisdom, Paramount’s Blu-ray geniuses decided
to expedite the expensive ($99.99) steelbook sets to its main retail partners
(Best Buy and Target) while the Digipak sets were relegated to a lower level of
urgency at a time when the disc-based media industry (including CDs, DVDs,
Playstation games, HD Blu-rays, and 4K UHD Blu-rays) is experiencing a traffic jam in the supply
chain.
Apparently, there is only one disc replication facility for
the North American market – in Mexico, to boot – that makes all of the
different types of discs I mentioned earlier. And because of unexpected demand
caused by life changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, that plant is struggling
to keep up with orders for disc-based media.
As a result, most retailers – not just Amazon – have had to
adjust the “available by” dates on order statuses all over the continent.
In my case, the status has changed a few times since last Tuesday.
First it was:
Your shipment has been delayed and we don’t have an estimate
for delivery. Do you wish to cancel?
Then it was:
We don’t have this product in stock, but we will let you
know when we have an estimate for delivery.
Today it’s:
Arriving June 19 - June 23
Well, that’s still somewhat vague, but it’s better than the
previous status messages.
In the meantime, I can – if I must – watch any of the four Indiana
Jones films either on DVD or Blu-ray.
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