Christian retailers seek niches to compete with big chains

At the Crave Bookstore and Cafe in Lebanon, Tenn., you can buy Christian bestsellers like Max Lucado's "3:16" and "Velvet Elvis" from Rob Bell, sample the latest CD from Third Day, or get just about any English Bible translation under the sun.

And then there are the "cinnamon things."

"It's not a muffin and it's not a roll," said Sandra Lawrence, who works in the store's cafe. "People kept saying, 'give me one of those cinnamon things,' so that's what we named them."

The Crave, which opened in December 2007, is not your ordinary Christian bookstore. Co-owners Mike and Beth Waggoner, along with their partners Sonny and Bridgette Belew, knew that if they just sold books, their store wouldn't have a prayer.

So they decided to try something different, offering sandwiches, salads, coffee, cappuccino cupcakes, along with homemade soups and free Wi-Fi.

"Take a Panera Bread and a Borders, mash them together and baptize them and you get the Crave," said Mike Waggoner.

While religious books remain profitable, generating $783 million in sales last year, Christian booksellers have discovered they have to evolve or go extinct as major retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com have stocked up on Christian books.

In some ways, Christian retailers have become victims of their own success.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Christian publishers released a string of Godzilla-sized blockbusters - "The Prayer of Jabez," "Purpose Driven Life" and the "Left Behind" series - that have sold a combined 100 million copies.

Those top-selling books and their companion products drove consumers to Christian retailers in droves. In turn, the store traffic they generated benefited all Christian publishers, said Mike Hyatt, president of Nashville, Tenn.-based Thomas Nelson Inc., a Christian publishing giant.

Those blockbusters also persuaded the likes of major retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com to stock up on Christian books. Once those bestsellers were available at discount prices from all the big box stores, the traffic at Christian retailers began to dwindle.

From 2005 to 2007, 783 Christian retail stores closed, according to the CBA, a Christian retail trade association.

That caused some resentment among Christian retailers, said Andy Butcher, editor of Christian Retailing magazine: "Some retailers felt let down by publishers who'd found bigger and better fields to play in."

Hit the hardest were smaller stores and some of the older independent stores, Butcher said.

Christian retailers that remain open tend to be chains such as Nashville-based LifeWay Christian Stores, which has nearly 150 national locations.

Still, the news is not all bad. Christianity Today reported recently that from 2005 to 2007, 1,124 new Christian retail stores opened - though the newer stores tend to be "less religious" and more like Borders or Starbucks.

"Christian retailers used to be destination stores because of their inventory," CBA President Bill Anderson said. "Now it has to be a total shopping experience."

That "total shopping experience" was a consistent theme when publisher Thomas Nelson gathered representatives from its 100 largest Christian retail accounts for a series of strategic sessions in Nashville recently.

The topics included marketing to women and building customer loyalty, along with at least one motivational sermon. The Disney Institute's Tom Madden ran the brand-loyalty session.

Andy Andrews, a best-selling Christian author who spoke to the retailers, said that to draw new customers into stores, the retailers need to create a sense of community - a place where people feel welcome and they belong.

That's a task they should be well suited for, Butcher said.

"If a Christian retailer can't create community," he said, "perhaps they are in the wrong business."

(c) 2008, USA TODAY International. Distributed by Tribune Media Services International.