Byron Borger and his wife, Beth, pursue customers who might never walk through the doors of their small-town Hearts & Minds Books store in Dallastown, Pa.

That means a lot of time packing and unpacking boxes and boxes of books they take to a wide range of off-site events, from local church retreats and regional pastors' gatherings to regional and even national conferences.

With a "fairly ecumenical" range of titles, Hearts & Minds has been asked to service events for some mainline church groupings that would have nothing to do with a more typical mom-and-pop Christian store that they would dismiss as being too "fundamentalist."

The approach has meant the loss of some more conservative customers at the 4,000-square-foot store (open six days a week) who don't support the idea of reaching out in this way, but it also has opened new doors. In addition to providing requested materials, Borger takes the opportunity to introduce other "thoughtful" titles from evangelical publishers he respects.

Accounting for about a third of Hearts & Minds' business, the conference focus-typically involving at least two major commitments a month-has brought in some Internet orders and even prompted customers to drive two hours to check out the home store in person.

It also fuels the Borgers' ministry passion, Byron said-being involved with people who appreciate "good books."

Read more in the "Store Strategies" profile in the July 7 issue of Christian Retailing International.

• Prev
• Next