Retailers and shoppers are receiving a little bailout relief of their own—thanks to new promotions by suppliers. Responding to the changing economic landscape, gift companies and publishers have been helping stores attract value-conscious customers.

Gift company P. Graham Dunn has introduced 60 new wall décor prints with variable pricing that begins at $12.50 and drops to $10 for retailers purchasing 10 or more, with the company paying half to all freight on larger orders.

“Since February, P. Graham Dunn has experienced virtually no downturn,” said Peter Dunn, president and founder. The company’s annual dealer conference in March “was the strongest one in our history,” he added.

Elsewhere, Christian Art Gifts (CAG) reported ongoing efforts to couple “aggressive pricing with quality and design.” CAG President Heinrich Johnsen told Christian Retailing that the company was working on “more affordable deals on the larger rack programs for our independent CBA retailers,” and added, “I have reviewed this with several of them, and they have described it as ‘very generous’ and ‘a great program.’ We are excited to roll this out to our CBA sales reps over the next few weeks.”

Brownlow Gifts President John Paul Brownlow said since most of his company’s gifts are low cost already, he hadn’t noticed a difference in category sales. The company had lowered price points on two categories, however, based more on supplier costs than the economy.

“We’ve lowered prices on two categories permanently, because we were able to find better suppliers,” he told Christian Retailing. “Fashion notes have gone from $4.50 to $4 each and the easel books have gone from $4 to $3.50 each. That wasn’t a situation where we just lowered because of the economy, but we’ve looked at our prices in an overall effort to sharpen price points where possible. This was a situation where we changed suppliers and were able to lower the price.”

Gary Davidson, senior vice president of Christian retail sales/ministry development group for Thomas Nelson, told Christian Retailing of positive results of recent discount promotions involving The Chronological Study Bible, Emmerson Eggerich’s Love & Respect, The Word of Promise: New Testament Audio Bible, and David Jeremiah’s What in the World Is Going On? as well as Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover and The Money Answer Book.

“We have not permanently lowered the price point on any best-selling items, but we do continue to aggressively price point for short promotions,” he said. “This has been very effective.”

Davidson also pointed to the company’s ongoing price programs such as “Best-seller of the Month,” which includes an endcap of best-sellers discounted 50%, and the “Fiction 5@5” promotion—with $5 novels that have done “very well during this economic crunch.”

Some retailers have seen success with some of the promotions, which are keeping traffic moving in their stores.

Lee Andrews, manager of The Potter’s House Parable Christian Store in Valdosta, Ga., told Christian Retailing that the Thomas Nelson endcap best-seller and fiction programs have been “well-received” by his customers along with Provident-Integrity Distribution’s $5 deals in music and DVD products. He added that other promotions doing well at his store included B&H Publishing Group’s Bonus Buy program and bargain pricing from Barbour Publishing.

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