About 420 Advance attendees learned some sobering news, as well as encouraging news Tuesday, Independents Day, about general retail performance and trends in the last year.

Leon Wirth, CBA's director of communications and marketing, led the day's sessions with the annual State of the Industry report, announcing that 288 Christian retail stores closed in 2004, up 6% from 2003. Of that number, 22% were CBA members, and 45% of those had sales less than $125,000. Another 24% were closures in chain stores, he added.

On a positive note, there was a 58.8% increase in Christmas sales, and nearly 31% were up 10% or more.

To prepare for Tuesday's presentation, CBA conducted an online survey last month, which drew 139 responses from retailers about their 2004 sales. Of the 139, 55.5 % reported being up in sales in 2004 over 2003, 35.7% were down, and 8.7% said their numbers were about the same.

Stores participating in the survey also reported the following: 6.5% plan to sell their stores this year, 5.8% are closing their stores, 12.2% are expanding their stores' size, 9.4% are relocating their stores, and 5% plan to open another store location.

Wirth called the survey "sobering but good and encouraging news." He also urged stores that are doing well to share their success.

"We need to share those statistics," he said. "We need to know what you're doing so we can share it with everybody.''