The secret notebook of an award-winning critic of Christian retail stores is about to be retired—but not before passing on some last lessons about what makes a good store.

After more than six years and almost 100 store visits, Christian Retailing's "Mystery Shopper" correspondent is retiring.

The anonymous assessor has visited independent, chain, church and general market stores across the country to evaluate how Christian product consumers are served.

While not identifying the individual stores that came under scrutiny, the reports have been detailed enough to help other retailers discover best practices they might want to adopt and highlight weaknesses they will want to avoid.

In a farewell interview with the magazine, the visitor noted "rarely (having) experienced outstanding customer service, especially in the last couple years. With the economic crisis, retailers have obviously cut staff."

In addition, the correspondent said that "suppliers and publishers would be surprised or shocked to see how ineffectively some of their products are displayed."

The Mystery Shopper files have been popular with readers, but less so on occasions with owners and managers unhappy with the rating they received. Some, though, have welcomed the undercover visits covered in the column, which also won a Florida Magazine Association award for best department.

Read the complete report in the December issue of Christian Retailing.

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