A message from Geni Hulsey, president of the Church Bookstore Network:

Since 1993, I have packed my bags and headed off for the CBA summer event that brings together vendors and store managers, frontliners, internationals, authors and artists and others affiliated with Christian retail.

Though I am always excited to see friends—vendors, store managers and workers—and to look for new products and talk with authors and artists, my anticipation was different as I made my plans to attend this year's International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). ... read more

Church bookstore representatives are being offered a free registration to The Great American Bargain Book Show (GABBS) in Boston.

At least half of the vendors scheduled to attend GABBS at the Hynes Convention Center, Aug. 19-20, will be offering popular Christian titles for as little as 10 cents on the dollar, according to GABBS organizer Larry May, who said about 40,000 book titles will be available. "This is a great opportunity for church bookstores to stock up for the coming winter holiday season," he said. ... read more

Few retail stores ever get dozens of people suddenly flooding in at the same time—let alone several hundred. But many church bookstores see huge crowds cramming into their little spaces with surprising regularity, between or after services. How are you to deal with this?

During the week, your days probably involve waiting on one customer at a time and quiet periods of restocking the shelves and ordering more product. But during deluge times, everyone needs to grab a bucket. ... read more

Sometimes it pays to state the obvious. This simple but effective display brings together a selection of seaside-related items, but the addition of the "Nautical Gifts" sign makes it clear that the items are for sale, not just decoration—and could also remind a shopper of a birthday or other celebration coming up.

click here to see entire picture

People talking on their cell phones distract other customers in our store. What should we do?

Those pesky cell phones. We can't even put them down to shop.

You can handle the situation in three ways. You can adopt a strong "silence, please" policy about cell-phone use and post it on signs at the entrances to the store and also around the store. Hopefully your customers will follow your guidelines and take a break from their phones. But many times even the most stringent signage will not stop the problem. ... read more

"My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight."

Prov. 3:21, New International Version

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