Pair of strong retail locations now draw customers with key promotions, serve church needs well

More than a century ago, Louis Kregel launched a small home business to sell theological books to farmers, first in Dutch, then in English. When his wife, Lena, decided it was time to have her house back, Kregel opened a store in Grand Rapids’ commercial area in 1929. Today—103 years later—the retail operation is known as Kregel Parable Christian Stores, having been accepted in 1992 as the exclusive Grand Rapids-area member of the Parable Marketing Group and joining as a franchise store in 2005.

With Jim Kregel—grandson of the founder, son of former Christian Booksellers Association President and Kregel Publications Robert Kregel and former board chairman of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association—at the retail helm, Kregel Parable’s two full-service locations in Grand Rapids and Grandville serve their West Michigan communities and beyond.

Kregel Parable also has close ties to Baker Book House, which branched off of the original Kregel Bookstores’ business in 1939 when the founder’s nephew, Herman Baker, started another store in Grand Rapids. Kregel Publications was also born out of the Kregel retail business, and Editorial Portavoz, the Spanish publishing operation now in Grand Rapids, was started in Spain by Harold Kregel.

Kregel Bookstores’ second store was relocated in downtown Grandville in 1991 and remodeled in 2005. The Grandville store now has 4,100 square feet of selling space, while nine miles away the Grand Rapids location occupies 5,200 square feet.

Kregel Parable makes a habit of serving area churches well and as a result, has a booming Sunday school and Vacation Bible School (VBS) curriculum business. Bob Gillett, a seasoned industry professional with 40 years of experience in books and church supplies, serves churches through the Ministry Resources Department, calling on congregations and maintaining regular contact with them.

“Quite a large number of churches, at least in the West Michigan area, buy their curriculum from us,” Jim Kregel told Christian Retailing. “We offer about 10 lines of curriculum at last count, maybe more.”

Both stores also hold curriculum open houses. For VBS, The Grand Rapids store hosts a larger off-site workshop, and the Grandville store a smaller on-site workshop.

Book signings have featured Ed Dobson and Beverly Lewis, among others. The signing with Lewis was advertised jointly with Baker Book House, described by Kregel as “good friends and great competitors of ours.” The two stores are also jointly advertising Christian Store Week.

Having cut back on traditional media because of the cost-benefit ratio, the store has “migrated pretty solidly to social media” to advertise signings, Kregel said, noting that Manager Jeremy Fleming excels in that area. Kregel Parable has 11,000 on its email list of individuals and a email list of around 500 churches. Along with its website and regular Facebook page, the store has a dedicated page on Facebook for Ministry Resources, where churches are invited to post comments about curriculum and their VBS program photos. The store also has a significant direct-mail list of about 30,000.

Along with book signings, Kregel Parable is strong in other promotions as well. The store offered an Olympics-themed event during the London games. Customers received a discount depending on how many gold medals U.S. Olympians won the previous day.

Another sport-themed promotion drew football fans in September. Customers could save 25% on select football-themed titles, including Michael Vick’s Finally Free and Chris Spielman’s That’s Why I Am Here. Winning a kid’s football toss in the store could mean extra savings off a purchase, and customers could also enter to win a football signed by Washington Redskins Quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Customers can also vote for their favorite fiction or nonfiction author in with a special ballot—a promotion that runs for about five weeks until the presidential election. Those who vote were to be entered in a drawing for a free book from their favorite author, and with any purchase could receive a free flag lapel pin to evidence their intention to vote Nov. 6. The author who wins the “election” will have their product on sale for a week.

“Every supplier has shown enthusiastic support for this,” said Kregel. “We think it will be a great additional promo to additionally connect new and existing customers to the books, authors and artists offered by Kregel Parable.”

The store also does an annual private sale for its top customers, inviting them for hor d’oeuvres and to use an “extra special discount,” Kregel said.

Aiming to reconnect with customers who haven’t made purchases in the store for some time, frontliners select a customer once a week to receive an appreciation card with the store’s photo on it where they have shopped in the past. It includes a message that encourages the customer, and the store is “seeing good response to that,” Kregel said.

About 20-30 pastors were expected for a continental breakfast in the store and a live Ustream event with Maurilio Amorim, CEO of The A Group who works with on leadership issue and a Q&A session.

Bibles compose around 11% of the store’s sales on a yearly basis. While the New International Version is still dominant, some churches in the area are switching to the English Standard Version, which is “rising in dominance,” Kregel said.

“We sell significant portions of fiction books at our Grandville store,” said Fleming, which he attributes to employees who are passionate about fiction.

The store sells ebooks on its website, and promotes them through Parable signage throughout the store, as well as on the overhead monitors at the cash wraps that run non-stop DVDs about pre-buy orders and other opportunities.

In gifts, the store carries the full line of Willow Tree figures and a majority of Demdaco’s Embellish line, and is new to fair trade.

“We’re seeing growth and a lot of potential especially with the P. Graham Dunn laser engraver,” Kregel said.

The store does offer an important message to its customers: buy local. A special sign posted on endcaps reads “See It Here, Buy It Here, Keeps US Here,” reminding customers to support the store rather than engaging in “showrooming,” where they look around the store, but buy their products elsewhere, especially online.

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