CBA Launches Christian Store Day in October

October 23 marks the inaugural Christian Store Day, spearheaded by CBA: The Association for Christian Retail as a way to honor independent Christian retailers for their dedication to local service.

“Consumers generally are becoming more aware that independent local businesses do more to support local communities than big-box discounters, which don’t use local professional services, pay local taxes, or support local community,” said Curtis Riskey, executive director of CBA.

To develop Christian Store Day, CBA brought together three publishers (Thomas Nelson, Tyndale House, and Zonderyan), three music companies (EMI Christian Music Group, Word Entertainment, and Provident-Integrity Distribution), the Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA), and the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). The groups are modeling their plans after Record Store Day, which for the past several years has successfully raised consumer awareness about the role of independent music stores.

“In the context of the Christian community, [Christian] stores help provide not only the product resources for individual faith walks, but also for reaching out to other people challenged by life issues,” said Riskey.

He also stressed, “Independent businesses – regardless of the type of business – have powerful economic and cultural impacts on their local communities.”

Without a sustainable network of Christian stores, Riskey said, “the industry and the local community lose the ability to easily launch new voices, have a human place to connect, and have a way to support local needs.”

To celebrate Christian Store Day, many communities are organizing promotions to benefit Haitian relief and ministry outreach. Retailers have been working to schedule events featuring authors and musicians, and CBA's partnerships with vendors have provided opportunities for giveaways, such as CDs from the “WOW Hits” music-compilation series, compliments of EMI.

CBA hopes Christian Store Day will encourage retailers to reach out not only to members of the faith but also to other members of their local communities as well.

“While there are sometimes radical differences among Christians and [among] denominations,” said Riskey, “stores provide a common local place to explore, pray, and just find help. This builds and reflects local community, local culture, and local need.”