According to journalist Jim Coggins, writing for the news Web site Canadian Christianity.com, close to three dozen Canadian Christian bookstores have closed in the past 12 months. I’m not sure how he tracked these stats, given that the trade organization CBA (Christian Booksellers Association Canada) disbanded in April 2007 due to declining membership. (See this Publishers Weekly article about CBA’s closure.) But the figures aren’t surprising, and as the economic recession drags on, one wonders how many more struggling retailers will give up.
In an interesting article titled “Christian bookstores find success by trying something new,” Coggins posits that–despite the financial risks–the recent opening of Faith Family Books and Gifts in Scarborough represents a new trend in Canadian Christian bookselling, where bigger stores, like bigger churches, can offer more services.
Coggins reports that Faith’s opening day sales were $26,000, the equivalent of a good monthly total for some smaller retailers. Considering that blogger Paul Wilkinson, the owner of two small bookstores in eastern Ontario, stated his total post-Christmas sales on January 6, 2009 were $31.47 before taxes, that figure might be highly optimistic. Check out Wilkinson’s blog Christian Book Shop Talk for an eye-opening insider’s view of what it’s like to be a Christian book retailer.
Coggins discusses the House of James in Abbotsford, B.C., the successful independent large operation owned by Lando Klassen upon which the Toronto store is somewhat modeled. House of James has managed to survive for 30 years, and recently completed a $1 million renovation and expansion. (We may have a battle over who can claim the “biggest” title. On its Web site, Faith Family Books claims to be Canada’s largest Christian bookstore at 11,000 square feet of display space, while the Coggins article states that House of James has about 12,000 square feet. Is the amount of behind-the-scenes warehouse space the deciding factor?)
Coggins also interviews the owner of the Blessings bookstore chain, which filed for creditor protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act last year and slashed its stores from 24 to three outlets. (See this January 31, 2008 article for the Blessings history.) The Blessings financial restructuring had a huge domino effect on the Canadian retailing industry, including book distributors R. G. Mitchell and the music/DVD distributors CMC.
Mark Hutchinson states the chain is now experiencing growth and he believes the operation has a great future by “listening and adapting,” whereas a couple of years ago, “I wondered if we did.” The remaining Blessings stores are all fairly large and are located in Calgary, Edmonton and Langley, B.C.
–Wendy Elaine Nelles
3 Comments
May 19, 2009 at 6:54 pm
–The math behind three dozen–
Blessings 24-3=21 stores closed
RG Mitchell 8 stores
Christian Publications 4-1=3 stores
Taking the the three largest chains: Total 32, which is close to 3 dozen.
June 5, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Add 2 more from Kamloops
See http://www.canadianchristianity.com/bc/bccn/0609/o01kamloops.html
and there are likely others
July 1, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Good news- a new store is now open in Kamloops B.C. It sure is too bad about Moncton- I hope someone will be able to open up there again soon. I think this city could support a good medium sized store.