Third annual effort to 'celebrate Christian retail' focused on providing hunger relief among American children 

Christian retailers reported good sales and positive feedback for CBA's third annual Christian Store Week (CSW), which ran Sept. 28 through Oct. 8.

Tammy Horvath, CBA member relationship specialist, said she has received numerous calls from participating retailers indicating positive gains for the first weekend of the promotion.

More than 400 Christian stores nationwide—including 134 independent retailers and the Family Christian Stores chain—partnered with World Vision to raise awareness of the need for hunger relief among American children as part of CSW, an effort to spotlight Christian bookstores and drive traffic, CBA said.

Bill Ballou, owner and manager of The Solid Rock in Kearney, Neb., told Christian Retailing that overall sales were up by a small percentage from last year's CSW.

“This is primarily due to the Saturday [Sept. 29] special sale of 'Spend More-Save More,” which we did not have last year,” said Ballou, noting his store sent 7,500 emails with the CSW brochure and alerted 1,000 Facebook contacts. “The Saturday sales were about a 25% increase over last year for same-day sales.”

Ballou emphasized a different section of his store for each day of CSW, while offering a drawing for prizes if customers spent $50-plus and brought in canned goods. “The major response was in the goodwill created by having different sales categories for each day—a something-for-everyone idea,” he said. “We will keep tweaking it for next year.”

Kelly Harding, bookstore manager at Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, Mo., said sales “have been up just a little” from last year's CSW.

“It's better this year because instead of just offering a sale, we are hosting events,” said Harding, noting the store partnered with a local church for a food drive tied to customers' canned goods donations. “Every year we seem to step up a little more and find new ways to celebrate this event. ... We took advantage of the marketing tools that CBA provided, such as the press release and printable flyers.”

CLC Bookcenter in Northfield, N.J., hosted a family fun dayon Oct. 6 as part CSW, collecting more than 300 pounds of food and $200 dollars in donations for the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. The fun day, which included live music, face painting and cotton candy, collected enough food for more than 600 meals.

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