Reflecting on my history in retail…
This weekend, as I went to starbucks before church, I passed Sherwood Ice Arena to a disheartening sight: Harmony Christian Books & Homeschool, a former competitor when I was in Christian retail, is going out of business and liquidating its store. It doesn’t come as a complete shock, though. It’s no surprise that small Christian stores are struggling, in part due to the economy and in part due to inability to compete with big box stores like Best Buy and Borders.
Harmony’s not the first retailer I’ve seen struggling: Shortly after I got out of the game, the Greatest Gift in Wilsonville had shut down, another small, family-run business. Rainbow West in Tigard, to the best of my knowledge, has closed down again (unless they’ve moved, which they have a nasty habit of doing without telling anyone) And the signs advertising space for lease in two locations of Christian Supply stores, one in Tanasbourne and one in Lake Oswego, don’t bode well, either, a clear indication that even the chain stores are feeling the pinch.
Part of it, clearly, is the inability to compete. Let’s face it: When Best Buy can sell Veggietales for 7.99 on release, and Christian Supply has it for 12.99 but gets it the Saturday before the secular market, particularly now, an extra three-days wait is easily accepted for the 5.00 savings. And Best Buy can afford that, as we’d had drilled into us countless times while I was still in Christian retail, they have larger ticket items that allow them to take such hits on their smaller purchases. However, I don’t think that’s entirely it, either. I think, to an extent, Christian retail brought it upon itself.
At this point, I’m sure many of you are kind of shocked at my hypothesis. “Brought it upon itself? How can they be to blame?” I don’t think Christian retail set out to deliberately sabotage itself, but I think by a process of decisions its made over the last couple of decades, it’s gotten into the mess it’s in now.
Christian retail used to be just that – Christian. It catered to an audience of born-again believers, looking for music that was uplifting, books that were inspiring, and Bibles that were… well.. Bibles. And it was good, people could find all of those items together in one place. However, over the years, things changed. Sales didn’t seem to be as good in the Christian markets as they were in the secular markets, and someone, somewhere, began to ask, “Why?”
They began to compare what was selling in the secular markets with what was selling in the Christian markets, and you know what they found out? What was hot in the secular markets didn’t really have a counterpart in the Christian market. Clearly, though, if it was that popular in the secular area, it would also be popular in the Christian area as well. And thus began Christian retail’s struggle to become “relevant” to the changing times.
Before I launch into this too far, a disclaimer: I am not going to get on my soap box and say whether or not certain types of music or books are more Godly than the other. We are, after all each given a different measure of faith, and while some may find certain things okay, others won’t. But I will point out a few different cases in which I saw something that struck me as seriously wrong in the Christian retail markets that I think stemmed from the problem of trying to be everything the secular market is without being the secular market.
That being said, Christian retailers began to bring in more things of what was popular: Christian rock bands that sounded just like the secular artists that were popular on the radio. In some cases, it wound up being a secular band trying to get its break. Take, for instance, Evanesence. Few people will remember, but they started their life as a “Christian” band on Wind-Up records. I remember we had the CDs up for about a whopping two weeks while I worked at Christian Supply just starting out. Then, one day, my manager told me that we had to pull them all. Puzzled, I asked why (the only thing I knew was the girl on the cover scared me). Come to find out, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, one of the band members had said “We’re really popular in the Christian markets, but we’re not a Christian band. What the [bleep] is up with that?”. There was an apology issued almost immediately from the record label, assuring us all that they would do a better job screening their artists before release. One two different occasions, I had to pull CDs by 12 Stones because of language/inappropriate comments in the CD liners. At the time, they seemed like trivial things, but looking back, they were things that never should have happened in the first place.
Music isn’t the only thing that became popular. An almost constant stream of “self help” books became the next big thing. It amazes me looking back at how many of the “next big things” were, in fact, big until they came out, then no one cared. And the number of ones that came through that had almost no theological foundation was appalling. The vast majority of the books in the “Christian Living” section were books based on pop psychology with scripture thrown in to make it look more spiritual. I remember vividly a book titled “Get a Life! It IS all about you”, which offered almost nothing from a Christian standpoint, but relied heavily on what’s popular in the psychology world. That’s frightening, folks. As Christians, God’s word is supposed to be our source. Not popular psychological theories.
And then Bibles. Let me say, when I was a kid, we had two kinds of bibles: NIV and KJV. (there were probably more, but those were the only two that anyone cared about). Now, there’s a bible in every shape, size, and kind. And some of them are borderline sacrilegious. For instance, the Bible as a Seventeen-style girl’s magazine. Because, clearly, the best way to get girls to read the bible is to make it look like a secular magazine that they’d rather be reading.
Regardless, things still weren’t booming in Christian retail. There were still things that were more popular in the secular market that the Christian markets couldn’t replicate. So, most recently, I’ve noticed a shift from strictly “Christian” items to items that are “Family Friendly”.
“Family Friendly”? Seriously?
It first hit me the day I entered the Lake Oswego Christian supply and found, prominently displayed, Disney movies. Disney movies with no discernable spiritual messages (Well, that is, unless you find one of the many books that specifically tries to draw spiritual themes out of secular movies), no real connection to what Christ came to do on earth. Then, a few weeks later on a trip to Vancouver Mall, I found in Crown Books & Gifts carrying Hannah Montana and High School musical CDs. The clincher, however, was reviewing the Easter sales flyer I recieved from Christian supply that had, in fact, no mention of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. At this point, it occurred to me that Christian retail has lost its collective soul.
Isn’t Christ supposed to be the focus? If we turn “Christian” into a synonym for “Family Friendly”, what has Christ done? Christ died on the cross, but for what? So we can use his name in vain attempts to promote a business that we’re running under man’s power with man’s logic?
Allow me to be counter-intuitive: Christian retail lost its soul and, I believe, is losing business because it fails to differentiate itself from the secular market anymore. If you walk into a Christian retail establishment, odds are you’ll probably get a similar level of service to a Borders or a Best Buy, a lot of the same products, but with higher prices. And since Christian retail’s moved to try not to invoke Christ as often, what’s differentiating them from the competition? Higher prices. It’s sad, but true.
I would love to see a Christian retailer let God build the house for once, live by faith, and see what happens. Stop trying to please the secular markets, but trust that God can provide the business if they try to run a business that’s pleasing to God. Christian retail shouldn’t have to change everytime the secular markets catch onto a trend that’s popular. Christians SHOULDN’T be keeping up with the Joneses, we were called to be set apart from the world, not to try and be like it but still maintain our identity as Christians. We should be seperated, and I just wish one retailer would decide “Okay, that’s the business plan. We’ll see how God can provide.”
Alas, I doubt I’ll see it in my day unless I open it myself… And that’s a market I don’t really want back into.
