CBA Industry Blog

Buying Local!

There has been a trend as of late for consumers to start shopping locally for products (mainly food items) sourced closer to home. The word “Locavore” was born which means “a person whose primary source of food is his or her local foodshed or from within a relatively modest radius.” Many people across the U.S. are looking to local producers to supply them with products that will also help them to sustain their local economy.

As many of you know, some Christian retailers have been struggling for years. In fact, their struggle is not unlike that of small family farmers in the 1980s. Big corporations moved in and squeezed out the little guy. In the struggle of Christian retailers, the corporations have been the Wal-Marts of the world. They started selling Christian product when it became popular and placed extreme margin pressure on small-business people trying to eke out a living.

A Changing Value Proposition

Greetings to the blog-world,
My name is Curtis Riskey and I am a fellow blogger on the new CBA Industry Blog. I haven’t written before now because I didn’t think I had much to add to the ongoing conversation. I also haven’t read too many blogs so I certainly don’t know how to write one. Part of my apprehension is to whom am I writing, and who would care?

I am a Christian retailer from Oshkosh, WI. I started a store there called BASIC which stands for “Brothers and Sisters in Christ.” It is a store that our customers seem to like a lot and we have been told that we have provided a necessary service in our community over the years.

I left our store in Wisconsin and moved to Colorado Springs recently to come to work at the Christian Booksellers Association. I did this because my heart had been breaking for Christian retailers who have been struggling for some time. You see, the competition for Christian products has increased over the years and the different ways to get those products has also exploded. The bottom line is that the value proposition has been changing. I guess I just wanted to do what I could to help fellow Christian stores grow.

I have met some of the most “salt of the earth” people in this industry. They have answered a call by Jesus to do something that takes tremendous personal sacrifice. They have started Christian retail stores not to get rich, but to truly serve others in their respective communities. They have tried to further His kingdom by providing books, music, and gifts to people so they may be encouraged and equipped to further His call on their own lives to reach out to the hurting people around them. It is truly a thankless job many times but other times it is rewarding beyond belief when you see lives changed for the better. Those rewards outweigh the costs and that is why many have continued down this path.

I mentioned that the value proposition has been changing and what I mean is this. For years a Christian store could be the place where people could find books, music, and gifts all centered on a specific worldview in one retail location. Now those books can be found many other places and the music also. Many gift items are tougher to find in other stores or online, but the competition still remains.

The million dollar question now is what is the value proposition for a Christian retail store today? Why do consumers continue to shop Christian retail stores? What can Christian retail stores do to attract more consumers? These are the questions that retailers are asking themselves everyday. I too would like to pose these questions to the blogosphere. If you are a consumer of Christian products, what can stores do to keep your business? If you are currently not a consumer of Christian products, what can a Christian retail store offer you that would be a reason for you to start coming?

Please respond, I would love to hear your ideas!