3-6-17<\/p>\n
A possible Sign of the Times. But this sign says \u201cGoing out of business.\u201d Not Sears nor Macy\u2019s nor Outback Steakhouse nor JCPenney nor Kmart nor Office Depot nor Aeropostale. Not American automakers, either; nor air-conditioning plants; not other businesses being yanked back to our shores.<\/p>\n
No, this week it was announced that Family Christian Stores, the self-proclaimed \u201cWorld\u2019s largest retailer of Christian-themed merchandise,\u201d is giving up the ghost. For several years, the chain\u2019s financial woes widely have been discussed, inside and outside the camp. <\/p>\n
There were bankruptcies, reorganizations, proposals, takeovers, conversions from for-\u201cprofit\u201d status to non-profit; promises to earmark income to charity; inventories that disappeared; unpaid invoices; at least one publisher and one distributor who were forced to go out of business because of Family Christian\u2019s actions; and, of course, approximately 3000 employees in 240 stores across 36 states.<\/p>\n
Beyond this recitation of facts, no more will be said, even as employees in the home office in Michigan are not being told much more than their final dates to report. Many good people tried to make Family Christian Stores work, and the causes perhaps will be fully revealed someday.<\/p>\n
The chain began 85 years ago when brothers Pat and Bernie Zondervan (yes, those Zondervans) opened stores. Their bookstores were re-christened Family Christian Bookstores when HarperCollins bought the Zondervan publishing arm. This was about the time, in the interest of disclosure, that books I edited were distributed by Zondervan, and books I wrote were sold in FCB shops. So Zondervan begat Family Bookstores begat Family Christian Bookstores begat Family Christian Stores\u2026\t<\/p>\n
When I noticed that the logo changed \u2013 removing \u201cBooks\u201d from the name \u2013 it told me more than did gossip on business pages and in Christianity Today<\/em>. Two years ago, in a court-sanctioned bankruptcy move, the chain \u201cshed\u201d $127-million of its obligations; and soon thereafter was sold for $55-million. Customers were little affected, but publishers, authors, manufacturers, and distributors were, negatively.<\/p>\n Excuse me for already breaking my Commandment to recite no more facts. We have the sad reality of this major go-to source for everyday Christians\u2026 no longer is a reality. In any form of reorganization.<\/p>\n Time and chance, however, happeneth to all. \u201cThe business of America is business,\u201d Calvin Coolidge famously said (and, little appreciated by many, not as a valedictory to capitalism but as a spiritual rebuke to shallow materialism) \u2013 and there is a macro-narrative about companies that outlive their usefulness. Manufacturers of buggy-whips were mightily depressed when Henry Ford coldly threatened their existence. <\/p>\n Similarly, as many American manufacturing jobs are moving overseas, history might record that it was the \u201cturn\u201d of emerging economies as the United States moved on to other technologies. To the extent this is true, despite the discomfort and dislocation of middle-aged factory workers, a lot of Economic Nationalism might be retrograde.<\/p>\n Lucky for me, digressions are still in vogue, and I shall return from mine. My point is that times are a-changin\u2019 in retail publishing, as elsewhere. Another Michigan-headquartered chain, Borders, was a recent casualty. Barnes & Noble retains a measure of viability because, and to the extent that, it has become a bookish theme-park in each store, with coffee bars, easy-chair oases, gifts, toys, music, puzzles, and kids\u2019 zones. Smart.<\/p>\n Family Christian did the same thing, accelerated in the past few years. Unlike Barnes & Noble or Starbucks\u2019 pastry and CD counters, the move was doomed to fail, however. Family Christian was in a different line of work, and when it forgot that fact, its days were numbered.<\/p>\n Ken Dalto is \u201cretail expert.\u201d These days, despite the Trump Bump, I fear, his line of work \u2013 that is, performing autopsies \u2013 will be a growth industry. But his post-mortem of Family Christian\u2019s demise is: \u201cI don\u2019t think it has anything to do with religion \u2013 I see it as pure business.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, that was the problem: the stores had less and less to do with religion; the Christian religion, specifically. <\/p>\n Which was the chicken; which was the egg? Did the customer-base of believers hanker for more jewelry, pictures frames, wall hangings, travel mugs, driftwood with Bible verses, and baseball caps? Or did Family Christian\u2019s strategic planners cast bigger nets to capture larger numbers of fish? The question is not rhetorical, nor is the answer dispositive: both trends must be true. However, it would have been difficult to hew close to the bedrock commitment to offer of solidly Christian material; and to remain a retailer of books and music.<\/p>\n Being \u201call things to all people\u201d failed St Paul\u2019s injunction when, say, FCS refused to carry Chick tracts but ballyhooed the latest Osteen books or Christian-lite DVDs. No, Family Christian had tried to become some thing for some people according to the dogmas of marketers and focus groups. In so doing it fell between the pier and the boat.<\/p>\n A Christian literary agent, Steve Laube, was quoted, I think about the consequent failure of Send the Light Distributors: \u201cOne less [sic] major distributor to feed the Christian store market.\u201d Beyond the cold analysis, which is unavoidable at any temperature, we arrive at a snapshot of Christian publishing, 2017. Literary agents using bad grammar; Christian book stores that scarcely carry books (during this morning\u2019s visit to my local Family Christian store, a large outlet, I counted only four short aisles of books); and many of the \u201cChristian\u201d books are relativist, celebrity-oriented, motivational, sometimes heretical.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Shack\u201d and \u201cSilence\u201d are touted, and consumed, as contemporary substitutes for the Gospel itself. So many new translations of the Bible appear these days that I wonder if God sees this, ultimately, as a churchy Tower of Babel redux. <\/p>\n But times does march on, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there? <\/p>\n I love my 14 commentaries, most of them the size and weight of car batteries. I am proud of my 40-volume set of Luther\u2019s works. Yet I will admit that I haven\u2019t cracked them in several years, not the commentaries anyways. After almost everything I write, I literally thank God and Google. And Wikipedia, sure. Change. <\/p>\n As a Christian author I lament the death, and perhaps dearth, of Christian stores.
\nBut the internet allows us all to sell, and to buy. Smartphones and iPads allow us conveniently to follow scripture passages in our pews. Bibles have not yet been outlawed; and they have margins to accommodate home study. <\/p>\n