CBA Industry Blog

"Save Money, Live Better" Not Just For Walmart Shoppers

If you haven’t already, check out Walmart’s latest marketing campaign. There’s a commercial Walmart ran last night though during the closing ceremonies at the Olympics that I can’t quite find on the web yet, but the premise of the commercial went something like this… buying a take-out pizza costs $14 on average. Walmart’s take-and-bake pizzas are $8. If your family eats pizza once a week every year, that’s an annual cost savings of more than $300. At least according to Walmart’s statistics.

Honestly, I think it’s a great commercial. It’s practical, simple, and speaks to the core of what this country is fretting over today. While CBA might not have the marketing power behind us like Walmart does, we’re doing the exact same thing for our members – finding ways for them to save money every day.

I just want to hit on two of the major ways members can decrease some of their operating costs almost immediately.

September CBA Best Sellers are up!

The Shack remains a steady contender for first place, but it's great to see some new guys on the list this month too. Welcome to Alex, Brett, Chris, Jim, and Wanda. For a more complete listing of the CBA Best Sellers, click here. Here's to another month of retailing and reading!

Free recordings from ICRS available

Just an FYI… the audio recordings from the Show have been posted on our Show website! The MP3s of Anne Graham Lotz, Chuck Colson, and Super Session are available for free download. The recordings and handouts from the workshop sessions are available for purchase on that site too.

We hope you enjoy these recordings as much as you did hearing them the first time at the Show. Let us know what you think or who you’d like to hear speak next year. Thanks!

Driving traffic into your store through Operation Christmas Child

Earlier this year, CBA announced a new partnership with Operation Christmas Child, a division of Samaritan’s Purse, as a way for retailers to not only engage their customers in a global ministry effort, but also reach out to the larger community and churches in their areas. When I initially contacted OCC several months ago about this partnership, their first response was, “Are you kidding?!? Of course!!!”

Later in the conversation one of my contacts explained, “CBA stores probably carry the closest products to what we’d like to send overseas. They’re Christ-centered and Christ-honoring products, and while kids in other countries definitely still need general hygiene products and school supplies, what’s really going to change their lives are the products sold within the CBA stores.”

Since announcing our partnership with OCC, I’ve heard from a number of you about how successful this project is for your stores every year. Obviously the ability to give abundantly to a ministry – especially around the Christmas season – is just one privilege of working in this industry. And not to discount those efforts, but what struck me as fascinating is the number of you who told me about the unique business opportunities that developed from this project.