Retailers lined up on the closing day of the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS) for some last-minute giveaways from product distributor booths STL Distribution North America and Anchor Distributors.

STL, which did iPod, gas card, GPS system and photo frame giveaways throughout the week, gave away a Trend Spinner full of product to Lori May of Florence, Oklahoma's Epic Bookstore and two grab-bag boxes of products to Margaret Lee of San Francisco's The Harvest Bookstore and Peggy Knudsen of Mount Pleasant, Iowa's The Word Shoppe. At the end of the giveaway, the company opened its booth for retailers to grab presents under its Christmas tree decoration.

Miriam Mullins, account marketing manager for STL, said the giveaways had provided "good traffic" for the booth.

Anchor had also been giving product away during the week, handing out six iPods, backpacks of MercyMe product, 10 Franklin electronic Bibles, Nest Family DVDs and certificates for free product. The big prizes, however, were airline tickets and hotel accommodations for next year's ICRS in Denver, July 12-16, which Ruth Reedyk of Banner Books Parable Christian Store in St. Joseph, Mich., won.

Anchor Sales and Marketing Manager Karen Keisler told Christian Retailing that although predictions were for a smaller show, the company had a plan to draw crowds and solicit orders with the giveaways and author signings.

"We know the shows have been dwindling, and we came here with a plan to sell," she said. "You do whatever you can to sell." Keisler said that by keeping "the action going," the company had "exceeded" its expectations.

As evidence of that, she noted that Anchor had brought around 400 rolling tote bags to hand out to retailers placing orders, and as the show was closing, they had almost run out of them.

"It was an outstanding number of orders," she said.

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