Christian Stores Experience Revival As Sales Skyrocket, Area Shops Branching Out To Serve Broader Customer Base

While retailers moan about flat sales this Christmas, Christian bookstores are experiencing small miracles.

In the Inland Northwest and across the country, stores that specialize in Christian merchandise have been on a wild, 10-year growth spurt that is just now leveling out.

Most Christian bookstores are reporting a 3 to 5 percent increase in sales over last year, according to the Christian Booksellers Association.

“With general retail sales flattening out everywhere, it sounds to me like there is still some growth left in the Christian market,” said Bill Anderson, president of the association that represents 2,500 Christian bookstores. “Spokane sounds like a microcosm of what is happening throughout the country.”

Fifteen years ago there were two Christian bookstores in Spokane, both of them mom-and-pop operations. Now there are 10 in Spokane, one in Coeur d’Alene and one in Cheney.

The Christian Gift Centers, based in Spokane, has been the fastest-growing Christian store in the country five of the last 10 years.

When the Bursch family opened the first gift center in 1983, it had one owner and one employee to manage 3,200 square feet of retail space.

Christian Gift Centers now has three owners, 26 employees and 18,000 square feet of retail space.

“We are selling seven times as much as we did when we first came to Spokane,” said Daryl Bursch, one of the owners.

The Spokane area is part of a nationwide trend, Anderson said.

In 1986, members of his association earned an average of $226,000 in gross income. By 1993 that doubled to $471,000.

While retailers credit a number of factors for the growth, the biggest is baby boomers going back to church, Anderson said.

“This is definitely fueled by aging baby boomers having their children and thinking about what they are passing on to their children in terms of values and lifestyles,” Ed Sinclair, owner and manager of Kaufer Co. Christian Supplies, 907 W. Boone.

At his store, children’s products - ranging from books and games to toys - are the second-fastest growing section, just behind books on prayer and devotional activity.

Mark Rice, music pastor at Valley Fourth Memorial church, said he has shopped at Christian bookstores for years. Only recently has he felt comfortable recommending the merchandise to his parishioners.

“It used to be Christian bookstores catered to conservative, traditional Christians,” Rice said. “Now they offer the gamut.”

The staples of most Christian bookstores include Bibles, prayer books, music, fiction, videos, selfhelp books, children’s products and gifts.

“All of a sudden there was this awareness that there was a Christian market for more than just Bibles,” said Hal Greene, owner of The Sower Bible Bookstore, 5023 N. Addison. “There are a lot of Christians out there and Christians read, they plan their finances, they want to improve their families.”

The stores have become a cultural oasis for people feeling bombarded by the secular world.

Dan Fitzsimmons was browsing through the Bible Book Nook in Coeur d’Alene last week. His wife complains that he spends too much time there.

“This is a safe place for me,” he said. “Every minute of the day, my values are constantly challenged.”

Fitzsimmons, a mill worker, said he appreciates a place where he can find information on every aspect of life, but none of it contrary to what he finds in the Bible.

Plus, he said his money goes to support a business that promotes local church activities, rather than an out-of-town chain.

Rice, the Valley Fourth Memorial pastor, stopped in the Evangel Book Store at University City Mall last week to buy a small present for a gift exchange. He had been looking in the Everything 99 Cents store, but changed his mind.

“I could have bought something really cute and funny and meaningless,” he said. “Or I could buy something tasteful, that will serve as a constant reminder of God’s presence in life.”

Whether to lure baby boomers or in response to their presence, the quality and merchandising of Christian products have improved, said Anderson.

“The customer that leaves The Gap or The Limited and walks into a Christian bookstore doesn’t lower their expectations,” he said.

Christian bookstore owners and managers attend annual conferences that showcase new products, displays and methods of improving layout, lighting and customer service, Anderson said.

All this marketing and growth can pose a dilemma for some bookstore owners, who consider their enterprises more ministry than business.

The original role of the Christian bookstore was to provide materials that help people learn about God, said Green, of The Sower Bible Bookstore in Spokane.

Now Christians can find everything from Magic Eye Bible stories to guidance on medical care.

“There’s a part of me that’s sad to see that,” Greene said. “I hope the Christian community doesn’t get so wrapped up with amusing themselves and entertaining themselves that they stop trying to get close to the Lord.”

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