Leading publishers and distributors to support expanded retail channel awareness effort in October

Thomas Nelson Publishers, Tyndale House Publishers, Zondervan, Baker Publishing Group and Abingdon Press are among the sponsoring vendors for this year’s Christian Store Week. 

Also supporting the CBA-sponsored Oct. 1-10 event—intended to build awareness of Christian retail stores and draw new customers—are EMI CMG Distribution, Provident-Integrity Distribution, Spring Arbor Distributors and Word Distribution.

Organizers anticipate the number of stores participating in this year’s event will double that of the 2010 launch, when 475 stores signed up. LifeWay Christian Stores was the only chain to take part in last year’s Christian Store Day. Others that had expressed interest did not have the time to prepare merchandising and promotional plans, prompting organizers to bring preparations forward for this year.

All chains and marketing groups are due to take part in this year’s event, which will start on Columbus Day—typically a busy retail day. There will be a special benefit CD for the promotion, as well as more in-store appearances by artists and authors.  

In its debut effort Oct. 23 last year, Christian Store Day raised $60,000 to aid Compassion International, Samaritan’s Purse and World Vision in relief efforts for Haiti through a compilation benefit CD.

“The expanded campaign allows retailers to better merchandise their stores and provide more opportunities for consumers, author and artists to participate,” said Curtis Riskey, CBA’s executive director. 

Christian humanitarian organization World Vision also has been named as the ministry partner for this year’s event “for the purpose of bringing Christian stores and their customers together around a central mission,” said Andy Peterson, vice president of Propeller Consulting, who is coordinating Christian Store Day on behalf of CBA. “We want Christian Store Week to be about more than products.”

Riskey added: “Part of the whole process has been to do a recap of what was successful and what didn’t work last year, and then to improve and bring those elements in this year to see we have an even more successful event.”