Niche retailers that like being niche retailers are likely to remain niche retailers. If they want mainstream sales from specialized products, they have to mainstream along with everyone else.

But they will survive. If better, bigger marketing companies could put religious groups at risk, the Protestant Reformation would have been re-absorbed by the Catholic church in the 18th century.

When big box bookstores rolled out across America, specialty bookstores (such as gay/lesbian bookstores) took tremendous sales hits. The small specialty bookstores could not present dominant assortments in their categories, compared to Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Unless Christian stores can come up with unique products (a “shared private label” line, for example) or unique services (alliances with schools for adult and children’s classes, for example) they will suffer major sales hits.

Other than overlapping on some best selling SKUs, there is no threat either way. In fact, a Target or Costco offering best selling SKUs such as the “Left Behind” series of books may take away sales in the short-term from a Christian oriented store but in the long-run may help sales by creating interest in the retail sector. There’s no way a Target or anybody else could begin to carry the depth of SKUs a Christian oriented retailer is going to carry. The real threat to them is the internet, not big-box retailers.

Mainstream retailers are carrying, and will continue to carry, these religious-oriented items. These sections seem to have grown in Wal-Mart and Sam’s over recent years in categories like books and music. In order to survive, the specialty retailers that serve this segment must differentiate and find ways to offer better service and illustrate common bonds in terms of values. Perhaps a coordinated campaign of some sort by CBA should be considered to help in this effort.

The first comments say it all – big box retailers couldn’t care less where their sales come from or why. It’s up to any and all speciality retailers who want to survive to sell customers on their ethos and benefits as well as their products.

Mainstream retailers can be expected to grab more of the religious-oriented market as it rapidly grows, just as traditional retailers got more heavily into natural and organic items as they gained broader awareness and consumer loyalty.

It seems to me that this specialty segment is vulnerable to the same competitive threats as other retailers. WM, Target and the like do not discriminate when it comes to where they suck in sales.

They are on their own mission.

At the end of the day… a $4 billion category will be handled as any other opportunity by the mainstream retailers.

Small Christian owned/operated businesses can not only survive but prosper by catering to those with whom they have most in common. I live in a relatively small community (>250,000) but I count hundreds of churches in the phone book (less than an inch thick). These businesses should work the churches with flyers, special offers, clubs, discounts for bulk orders, etc. Most church related groups want study materials that are not in “big box” stores. Themed items – Purpose Driven Life, Left Behind, etc. – that find their way into the big box can be marketed directly to church members through the churches. Try sending flyers via email and fax machine. Ask the pastor or church secretary to put the flyers in Sunday school classes and post them on the bulletin boards. Buy copies of DVDs that church youth groups and other study groups can use and lend them free of charge. (Get a credit card number, phone number, email address, etc. for security.) Become a valuable partner to 30% of the churches in your market… Read more »