Yaaaaah! Status displayed now says "Shipped on March 6, 2013". The Fedex website shows that the IMac shipment originated from Freemont, CA, and its delivery date is showing as 3/13/2013.
However, the FedEx tracking page is reporting the following:
"IMPORTANT! A winter storm is causing disruptions and delays in IL, IN, MD, MI, OH, PA, VA and WV". Indeed, there was a winter storm on the east coast yesterday, so that's understandable.
In conclusion, no doubt that there's been an uptick in shipping times of the product. A question though: Does anyone know what shipping location maps to the area with the biggest reported number of iMac issues, as seen in this forum?