Covenant Group member store started with God’s call to a machinist

A machinist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Curtis McGinnis believed he was called by God to do something very different than his day-to-day work. In 1976, he saw the first fruits of his obedience at the opening of the original Knoxville, Tenn., location of Cedar Springs Christian Stores, which are today part of the Covenant Group.

“He knew nothing about the bookstore business,” said Vicki Geist, daughter of Curtis and Lois McGinnis who was 15 when her parents started the store. Geist moved to Ohio for a time and became a sales rep for Enesco when Precious Moments were big, and is now a buyer for the store who oversees personnel and manages the store layout as well.

“When you are called, you begin to listen, read and learn how to be the best at what you are called to,” Curtis said. “We were very fortunate to have a lot of good people to help us, and with the help of CBA, we managed to do what we have done.”

He kept his Oak Ridge job for seven years, and his wife also continued her job there. Starting at age 15, their daughter and her aunt worked at Cedar Springs’ first store, the 1,600-square-foot Kingston Pike location that has since gone out of operation.

Eventually, Cedar Springs grew to three East Tennessee locations in Knoxville and Oak Ridge, but along the way went through many changes and expansions.

Cedar Springs’ current locations include an Oak Ridge store bought in 1992 with a partner who were later bought out and the Clinton Highway location in Knoxville that opened in 2001. Oak Ridge is composed of 5,400 square feet and Clinton Highway 8,000 in total.

The main store—a free-standing location at 504 N. Peters Road in Knoxville—was opened in fall 1995 with a 16,500-square-foot sales floor. Together with office space and two conference rooms, Peters Road is comprised of approximately 35,000 square feet in total.

As with many businesses today, Cedar Springs’ sales have decreased in some areas. Whereas there used to be a buyer for each department, now Vicki and her brother, Link McGinnis, have assumed many responsibilities and wear many hats.

Link, whose expertise is in computers and who formerly worked for The Limited, oversees Cedar Springs’ information technology needs, manages facilities and buys Bibles and homeschool products as well as handling replenishment.

Lois retired a decade ago, while Curtis, still comes into work a couple of days a week, having “semi-retired” four years ago. And though Cedar Springs started as a family business, Link gives credit where credit is due.

“The success of Cedar Springs as in all of the Christian stores around the country really rides on the backs of a lot of really great team members,” he said. “Our employees aren’t just retail clerks—they really care about their customers and hold their role in serving customers as very important. Without the dedication and love for what they do from the back rooms to the front door, a mom-and-pop Christian bookstore in Knoxville, Tenn., would not have this story.”

One area where the store serves the family is the homeschool business. The main store carries 500-600 feet of product from the top names in curriculum and retains Send The Light as its primary distributor.

“We carry a very wide variety,” Link said.

At a curriculum swap held once a year in June, homeschoolers reserve a table for free and choose from each other’s used items while picking up what they need for the coming school year. The swap was so popular this year, it spilled into the receiving department and out into the store’s parking lot. The store also does a booktable at a homeschool event in Knoxville. Homeschoolers receive a free card at these events, or it can be purchased for $5 at other times, for future discounts at the store.

Cedar Springs also resells used homeschool product it buys from customers, who then received “Cedar Springs cash” to purchase any product in the main store.

With 35-foot ceilings at the main location, one of the distinctives is how the store is divided into “houses,” including a kids’ house, a Bible house and a “gift mansion.”

In the gift mansion, jewelry is its biggest category, and apparel—comprised only of T-shirts—is growing more than any other. About six years ago, the store decided to expand beyond Christian lines to carry costume jewelry—and it also carries such general items as women’s wraps and a tunic-style dress that is useful for mission trips, Geist said.

Tees are “increasing 20-40% monthly,” she noted, though she cannot put her finger on a particular reason for the growth. Along with offering Kerusso, Red Letter 9 and other lines, it is selling the “It’s a Girl Thing” apparel, which is being tested at Cedar Springs and in the Mardel chain. The store also purchases promotional shirts for special occasions like Mother’s Day, which sell very well.

As with homeschool products, Cedar Springs has a resell section for fiction, but in all three stores. It also does a special fiction sale in the summer that is promoted by direct mail, but with e-books gaining in the market, fiction has become “the hardest-hit category,” Geist said.

“In June of this year, we sold half of the number of fiction books that we sold last year,” she added. But overall, “even though it’s declined, we still do 25% of sales in books,” Link observed.

Though the store has had its challenges in areas such as Sunday school curricula and fiction, it has become more innovative and has seen success in multiple categories.

Like many stores, Link said: “We want to hang on to every bit of a business we can.”

Cedar Springs Christian at a glance

Years in existence: 36

Size: 35,000 square feet at the free-standing store, including a 16,500-square-foot sales floor

Staff: 65 mostly part-time employees at all locations

Opening hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Monday-Saturday at the main store

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