Great choice, but the emphasis is on self-service

External appearance: Red letters on the storefront clearly visible from the busy highway made the location appear easy to reach, but that was deceptive: getting to this destination store required knowledge of the area to find the access.

 A large banner outside the store, clearly visible when we pulled up, indicated “storewide clearance up to 75% off.” Outside, three tables, two carts and one cardboard CD dump were loaded with seasonal
merchandise. 
 
Window display: Visible through the windows to the right: three rounders of DaySpring cards, Garborgs day brighteners, two Bob Siemon Designs rounders and the back of a cardboard dump. To the left of the front doors, the entire display window was filled with VBS items.
 
Entrance: To the left was a shopping cart piled high with seasonal merchandise, a display of DaySpring calendars and a short stack of shopping baskets. Bins of seasonal merchandise were lined up on the floor next to kiosks with neatly stacked product.

Layout and inventory: Cross-merchandised gift items were in two nooks to the right. In the children’s area, a sign on the child-level TV read, “DVD player resting.” Above the music section, three televisions hung from the ceiling in angled boxes. A framed piece of art for purchase was hung on each of the non-screen sides—a great use of space.

Three T-shirts were displayed on a slat wall at the back, next to a single rack of Kerusso necklaces. A large number of additional T-shirt fronts were displayed in acrylic squares above a black wire cube rack with the shirts. The music department offered seven listening posts, and CDs were clearly organized.

Inventory was weighted toward books, not gifts. Sections with Old and New Testament commentaries, pastors’ helps and staff resources were exceptionally well-stocked, but product was deep and broad everywhere.

Each product category had clear signage, not merely indicating the genre but including suggestive selling, such as one reading “Easy returns.” Another showed “3 easy ways to shop: online, on the phone and in the store.” The effective use of clip strips was also notable, where product often matched the category—highlighters hung in the Bible section. In other areas, gift cards of all kinds redeemable at the store were displayed on the strips.
 
Appearance: The junky sale tables
outside the store directly contrasted with the neat and clearly organized interior.
 
Staff: Only one in my group of four shoppers was greeted, and then just with the words, “How are you?” Yet, during our half-hour visit, the three frontliners communicated freely among themselves, calling back and forth across the front of the store as they talked and checked stock. 

Although I moved between departments, standing in several highly visible places and obviously taking notes, hoping a frontliner would approach me, I was disappointed no one said a word.
 
Verdict: Sale items were cleverly located in many departments, propelling me and my bargain-hunting companions to walk through the entire store.
Remove clutter from the front door. For example, the small sign offering “personalized invitations and announcements” could easily be relocated inside.
 
If this were your regular store? I’d love it, as I’m accustomed to self-service.
 
Would a non-Christian feel comfortable here? I’m a lifelong Christian but felt out of place standing in front of a unit labeled “WOM”: I had no clue what that meant. 
 
What will you remember of your visit a week from now? The local phone book included a separate line listing for the fax number. That’s astute suggestive selling, especially for churches that want to take advantage of the large and well-stocked church-supply section.

THE STORE MANAGER RESPONDS:
Thank you so much for your mystery shop. We enjoy Christian Retailing magazine and look forward to all articles, ideas and product/best-seller lists.

Thanks to unusually warm temperatures, our store is literally busting out at its seams with customers, merchandise and clearance product—warm enough to put our clearance tables outside and make a sidewalk sale of merchandise.

First, we are so pleased that your mystery shopper saw all of this: the busy staff, tables of clearance and well-merchandised interior. Teaching the staff to balance great customer service without also becoming task-oriented is (or should be) a daily regiment for all store managers/owners. So, while I am pleased to know that your mystery shopper saw a staff hard at work, it is always discouraging (but highly educational) to learn that, during the start of our gigantic clearance initiative, our store associates were “too” busy. We can all learn from this.

Lastly, it is true that some of our shelf space is devoted to particular organizations within the church and that can certainly be a little confusing. Thank you for your time and for choosing our store to shop.