General inspirational products, community events boost retail traffic

P. Graham Dunn’s factory retail store has experienced significant growth in sales, despite a down economy. The Dalton, Ohio-based gift supplier seems to have found the key to increasing traffic and profits for its on-campus store, which was up 30% for 2012 and about 15% this year as of October.

Located in a unique situation as the 22,000-square-foot retail store next to the P. Graham Dunn factory and about a half-hour from towns in the area, the store is truly a destination, Retail Operations Manager Todd Krist told Christian Retailing. 

P. Graham Dunn President Joe Knutson observed that the company as a whole has “grown every year even through the recession, albeit at a slow pace through the recession, but our retail store has really taken off. Wholesale is showing growth as well, but it’s not as dramatic as retail.”

The production side of P. Graham Dunn makes up about 90% of the company’s business, and retail, 10%. The retail element includes the Dalton location and stores in Branson, Mo.; Gatlinburg, Tn.; Walnut Creek, Ohio; Berlin, Ohio; Grandville, Mich.; and St. Joseph, Mich.

“Only three years ago we were nothing but a branded company,” Krist explained. “The only products we sold were products that we made, P. Graham Dunn products, and then we made the decision to branch out and bring other suppliers into our store that we thought people would enjoy buying, and it was a bit of a hunt-and-peck at the beginning.”

Krist has brought in brands such as Pandora, Vera Bradley and Melissa & Doug as well as products such as scarves and even small Amish furniture pieces, all with the aim of attracting younger shoppers. families and non-Christians.  

“What we’ve found—and I think the Christian bookstores experienced this as well—was that we weren’t getting your general shopper in the door,” Knutson said. “It was if they needed to be a Christian just to enter the building. We didn’t want that. We wanted to be a more welcoming environment. We wanted to expose those who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior to our products, but we didn’t want it to be the barrier to entry.

“If you’re not a Christian, I would imagine that it would be very intimidating to come into an environment where it seems like everyone is already in on it,” Knutson said. “And I think our bookstores do such a great job in educating people about God’s love, but I think just by the way that it’s presented out to the street, if you’re not a Christian, you may be apt not to go into that bookstore to look for something that’s related, but it’s still going to expose you to God’s Word.”

As a result of the shopping experience, Krist said: “It’s not uncommon  for us to see people come in and spend more than an hour, sometimes two hours here, and all of them say there’s so much to look at.”

The store puts “a lot of time, effort and money into our displays,” said Krist, who uses antique tables and a lamp made of folded books, for example. 

The store also hosts free-to-the-public events annually such as fall festivals and Easter egg hunts. Knutson said the spring fair has brought 3,000 to 4,000 people into the store in a two-day period.

“The idea that we have behind these events is to do something that is going to bring people into our store that likely would not visit here on their own,” Knutson said.

Knutson and Krist acknowledge that the factory store is in a different setting than most Christian retail stores and some things would be hard to replicate elsewhere, but believe all Christian retailers can appeal to a wider audience. Along with on-campus events for the community, the store has big sales such as an outdoor tent sale and participates in the county fair, spring flower show and tool show.

P. Graham Dunn plans to officially launch its touchscreen technology for laser personalization at the Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market, which runs Jan. 7-14.

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