Sunday, June 19, 2005

The Fashion of the Christ

dee sent you a Business Week link and the following message:
If you missed this article last month it speaks volumes about the industry, christian book distribution, and the problems with christian bookstores.


The Fashion of the Christ
Corporations like Sony and Time Warner are grabbing pieces of the religious music, movie, and book markets. The losers: Small specialty stores

6 comments:

Mikesell said...

Still, the Christian Booksellers Assn.'s Anderson argues that the surviving Christian bookstores can still prosper. "General retailers want to cherrypick, while we offer the full orchard," he a[r]gues.

His full comment ended with "...unless there's a black person on the cover." :o

Here in Oregon the major Christian bookstores are nowhere near a "full orchard." In the music section they probably have more than Sam Goody, but for books they're really pathetic (maybe a bookshelf or two of fiction, but that's pushing it). If you want "religious" knicknacks & crap-with-a-scripture-verse it's the place to go, but otherwise they have little to offer.

--Chris (dFm)

Nancy French said...

I read that only 37% of Christians in America have ever stepped foot in a Christian bookstore...

Isn't that intersting?

Unknown said...

Chris, you are so funny. When I saw that quote I laughed. I know quite a few bookstore owners who purchase books for their stores at Sams, because its cheaper than the distributors. So there basically carrying the same item and hiking the price to make a profit. You're also right about not seeing much fiction regardless of race. Two rows is about standard in the few christian bookstores here in North Atlanta. I've been asked to do a reading series at the local books a million we'll see what's popping there.

Unknown said...

Nancy, I read that, too. So we need to ask ourselves where are the sixty three percent shopping and focus our attention there. Guerilla MArketing 101:)

La Monica said...

I don't believe it's too late for Christian specialty stores to get a piece of the pie, but to someone's point, they're going to have to diversify their product lines. And I truly believe they should start with Christian fiction beyond the usual historical/romance novels.

Of course, as consumers, if we're not requesting/demanding diversity in product offering, we're not likely to see it.

So it's going to take a concerted collaboration of retailers creatively and strategically going after our business, and us as consumers being willing to pay a little more for the sake of supporting Christian-owned businesses.

Unknown said...

good point, lamonica. do you think our prices are too high? particularly paperbacks

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