Store in South Doubles Customers' Share the Good News of Christmas Orders
Contact Angie Cheatham: 630-868-6043 or media@crossway.org.
September 4, 2009
The Good Shepherd Christian Book & Gift Shoppe in South Orange, New Jersey, plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the store this December by doubling customers’ purchases of Crossway’s Share the Good News of Christmas gift bags. For every carton purchased, Good Shepherd will provide another carton for free for orders purchased by September 30, 2009.
The store’s owner, Karen Wilson, had been praying about something to mark the store’s anniversary that was different from the typical promotion—having a sale or hosting an author or artist in the store. She sensed God was instructing her to do something that would be an outreach to people in her community. Then she read about Share the Good News of Christmas in World Magazine and thought, “This is it!” Wilson liked the whole package—that it can be personalized, and that it includes a Bible, a gospel tract, and an invitation to a church or ministry event.
Wilson is seeking to use every promotional vehicle available to get the word out about Share the Good News of Christmas. Wilson and her event coordinators sat down and made a list of eighty churches in the area that they plan to both personally call and follow up with a letter. “In most cases, we are not contacting the pastor, but people we know who are in positions in the church to get things done,” said Wilson.
She is sharing her personal excitement with customers who visit her store, promoting it on her phone answering machine, displaying sample bags in the store, downloading the postcard art from CBA’s website to print and distribute to her mailing list, and preparing ads for local newspapers and radio. She also ordered sample kits to have in the store to give away to potential customers.
“Because I’m excited about this, my customers are getting excited about it! We’re making an all-out effort to get churches, as well as individual customers, to tell us how many cartons of kits they want to purchase so we can place our complete order with Crossway by September 30th.”
“In the past we’ve celebrated our store’s anniversary with special sales and having artists or authors in the store,” said Wilson. “But this year will be different—this year we’ll be sharing the Good News of Christmas!”
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